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Saving the Garden of England

Sevenoaks Appeal

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve. Help us raise £100,000 to enhance this pioneering reserve.

Over 50 years ago, this remarkable site made history when many local volunteers started to make the first of its kind in Britain - a gravel and sand quarry transformed into a site for nature conservation. Today, its is hard to imagine that where there are now  five beautiful lakes, reedbeds, ponds and woodland - a Site of Special Scientific Interest - was once a sterile industrial landscape.

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Watervole © Brett Lewis

Kent Wildlife Trust took over the management of the site in 2005. Since then continued progress has been made to improve habitats and facilities. We now need to conduct a further programme of major restoration work, to build on conservation success already acheived.

Key aims

  • There is an abundance of willow, alder and birch that needs to be managed by coppicing - particularly along the water's edge - to benefit wading birds and many smaller birds which occupy the dense marginal growth. We will establish a new reedbed to attract warblers and some ponds will be managed specially for forgs, newts and dragonflies.

  • The overgrown banks of the River Darent need coppicing to allow light to encourage more aquatic plants and marginal vegetation. We will cretae pools and shallows - making more natural places for willdlife. Improved conditions here may promote the return of the scarce white claw crayfish.

  • The many veteran trees need to be carefully managed to prolong their life so we will need the specialist skills of tree surgeons, this is good for birds, bats and beetles.

How your money can help

  • £5 could pay for two pairs of work gloves to equip volunteers to clear scrub, benfitting species such as common spotted orchid

  • £10 could contribute towards the creation of refuges for reptiles and amphibians

  • £18 could buy two metres of reed fleet to benefit birds such as reed warbler

  • £25 could pay for hand tools such as bow-saws, rakes and bill hooks which would help keep areas such as the River Darent free from scrub

  • £50 could enable a wildlife survey of butterflies to be carried out

  • £500 could manage a veteran tree to prolong its life and maintain a valuable wildlife habitat for birds, bats and fungi

  • £1,000 could train, support and equip a volunteer who could help with essential management work

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.
 
The Wildlife Trusts