Wildflower meadows to be created at Marbury Park (From Northwich Guardian)

Planting project will attract more wildlife at Marbury Park

4:20pm Thursday 2nd July 2009 in News By Gina Bebbington

A £12,000 planting project will attract even more wildlife and visitors to a popular Northwich park.

Three wildflower meadows will be created at Marbury Country Park this autumn to draw thousands of butterflies, moths and insects, including the struggling bee population, to the woodlands.

The project has been made possible by a £10,000 grant from Waste Recycling Environmental Limited (WREN) and money from a variety of local groups.

Alan Redley, Friends of Anderton and Marbury (FoAM) chairman, said: “This project will be of tremendous benefit to the place, both visually and also for training.

“We can get school parties in and let them identify wild flowers and collect seeds to replant for the following year.”

The meadows will be created between the lime avenue in front of the rangers’ cabin, in the old horse jump field beyond the children’s play area and in a space between the lime avenue and the mere.

A wide range of flowers will be planted by FoAM volunteers, including field scabious, kidney vetch, ox-eye daisy, cowslip and wild carrot.

Anderton with Marbury Parish Council, Action Weaver Valley, Cheshire County Council, The Mersey Forest and FoAM all pledged financial support to add to WREN’s £10,000 grant.

Alan said: “The support we’ve had from so many people is really great because it shows the amount of local support that we’ve got – it’s not just FoAM doing it. We’ve had a lot of support letters written from schools and Sir John Deane’s.

“The schools want to involve their kids in helping us plant the sites and for me it’s that link to the community that’s important in this.”