A place for growth?

Its summer and Maidenbrook Country Park is bursting with colour across the site!
We’re thrilled to offer, for the delight and visual delectation of our visitors, a
kaleidoscope of colours, tones, shapes and in some case sizes of wildflowers in
bloom. With their primary focus being food for pollinators and small wildlife, these
beautiful, eye-catching strips of colour have met with approval from all, perhaps
offering cause for a smile and a lifting of the mood at the very least.

Seeing the enjoyment these beautiful, volunteer-led spaces offer to visitors – both
winged and walking – seems therefore to fly in the face of what appears to be a
growing spate of anti-social behaviour. Youthful exuberance is nothing new and can
be said to be part of the adventure of growing up, but why does it have to be coupled
with wanton destruction? Broken trees and fences, smashed and discarded bottles,
verbal abuse and a general disrespect for the environment and those that tend it. Is
this the future of the avenue to adulthood?

At Maidenbrook Country Park we’d prefer to focus on offering young people the
opportunity to engage with and be engaged by the natural world. They are, after all,
the future custodians of these green spaces and will hopefully become the
champions that woodlands and wildlife so desperately need. To this end we are
looking to promote and encourage community-based conservation at the Park,
where local communities can be guardians of local biodiversity, where furtherment of
our volunteer programme in all its guises can offer opportunity to potential Junior
Rangers and anyone with an interest in ecosystems, woodlands or just the great
outdoors.

Fostering a love of nature begins at home, so I’d like to appeal to all local families to
come to the Park and enjoy the space together. Picnic in the Park, explore our
woodlands and find the fun of a nature-based treasure trail. Share that love of bugs
and butterflies, birds and beautiful things and help your children come to love our
Park and all that it offers for the betterment of our shared future.

Hopefully our buds in blossom in areas across the Park will attract more than just
pollinators this season and we’ll be able to grow our ranks of volunteers, helping to
support Maidenbrook Country Park to achieve the full potential that this memorial
wood deserves.

Candy Sully
Volunteer Coordinator