Nashenden Down
A great deal of restoration work will be needed at Nashenden Down, near Rochester in Medway, to return it to species-rich chalk grassland. Your support will help to provide a habitat, not only for you to visit and enjoy, but for future generations too.
Key aims
The soil nutrient levels will be monitored. If they are too high then a wheat crop may be planted to strip the artificial fertilizers from the soil to improve conditions for grassland species such as horseshoe vetch. Tree and hedge planting will vary the habitat, providing song perches for yellowhammers as well as a home for bank voles, wood mice and even the elegant kestrel.
An additional arable strip will provide a habitat for farmland birds like grey partridge and corn bunting. Wild flowers such as poppies, corn cockle and cornflower will grow on this strip. We will use Highland cows, Wiltshire horned and Hebridean sheep as highly effective management tools. Using livestock is good for wildllife and diversity, creating a tussock effect that varies the habitat to support a wide rage of species.
- £5 could pay for two pairs of work gloves to equip volunteers for a range of conservation tasks such as stock fencing and weed clearing.
- £25 could buy and care for a Hebridean sheep to graze the reserve.
- £500 could buy enough native wild grass seed to sow one acre of chalk grassland.
- £3,000 could cover the costs of purchasing one acre of this crucially important site.
Please help us make this wildlilfe haven at Nashenden Down possible.
The purchase of Nashenden Down will be an example of the Trust's Living Landscape Policy in action - we will see an immediate improvement in the abundance of wildlife such as common blue butterfly and skylark. At the same time we can improve the ability of wildlife to move and spread across the landscape. We will also be asking local people to get involved in helping to look after the site once it is established.
To donate to this ongoing project
- Call our credit card hotline in office hours (01622) 662012
- Send a cheque to: Donations, Kent Wildlife Trust, Tyland Barn, Sandling, Maidstone, Kent. ME14 3BD.
