Medway Smile LL-Culand Pits from Bluebell Hill (S Weeks)
creating a connected network of good wildlife habitats
The Medway towns are among Kent's most built-up and industrialised areas. But stretching around the south of Medway, like a smile, there remains a distinctive landscape of ancient woodland and chalk grassland, interspersed with wide arable fields and leading down to the wetland habitats of the River Medway.
The aim of the Medway Smile Living Landscape Scheme is to make these areas for wildlife bigger and to work with local landowners and local communities to make the surrounding land better for wildlife, creating a connected network of good wildlife habitats.
Virtual tour by Mike McFarlane
- Extending and enhancing existing reserves and creating a new reserve at Nashenden Down.
- Helping local people to restore the management of Bredhurst woods.
- Improving footpaths and combating the problem of antisocial use of the woods.
- Implementing a conservation grade lamb project.
- Supporting local businesses and contributing to more sustainable local food production.
- Working with local people in Medway to create a corridor for wildlife through the heart of the urban area.
- Working with the Valley of Visions partnership to deliver a range of landscape and wildlife enhancement projects.
Start date: 2008
Scheme area: 5,000 hectares
Trust reserves within the scheme
This scheme is helping species including...
Adonis blue and silver-spotted skipper butterflies, adder, early spider orchid, lady orchid, meadow clary, arable weeds, farmland birds
Current threats to the landscape
Agricultural intensification, habitat fragmentation, abandonment of traditional woodland and grassland management and anti-social behaviour.
This scheme is also...
Reducing flood risk, improving access for people, producing local food
Natural England, Forestry Commission, Woodland Trust, Local Authorities, local landowners, Kent Downs AONB, Trenport Ltd, Lafarge Aggregates Ltd, Blue Circle - Lafarge Cement, Aylesford Newsprint Ltd.