Biodiversity Action Plan Published

The Milford on Sea Biodiversity Action Plan has now been published.

This document has been produced by the Milford Conservation Volunteers with support from the Community Wildlife Plans Project, New Forest Land Advice Service and New Forest National Park Authority. 

click image to enlarge

Its production has taken two years from the point of the idea being discussed, agreed and supported by Milford-on-Sea Parish Council in 2012 to getting the first draft version available for consultation. 

The process has been lengthy for several reasons. There has been an important journey of determining what should be included in a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and what the community’s own Milford-on-Sea BAP should look like, followed by much essential research into, and the bringing together of, the wealth of wildlife information available for Milford-on-Sea.

Interpretation Board at
Gate 12 entrance to
Studland Meadow & Common
click image to enlarge

There has been consultation with as many residents of Milford-on-Sea as possible to bring all this together into a readable, attractive and useful document that will help inform planning decisions and strategies for the future benefit of the wildlife and the part they play in amenity value we all enjoy. Acknowledgements Jenny Spenser has chaired the ‘Milford Biodiversity Action Plan’ steering group meetings since 2012 with steering group members being local wildlife enthusiasts Tony Locke, Hugh Corry, Keith Metcalf, Anne Jenks, Janet Miles, Peter Hutchings and more recently Chris Sanders. 

The group has been driving forward work on this document over the last two years along with running community wildlife surveys and practical wildlife conservation events within the Parish. The Milford Conservation Volunteers group has had many active ‘wildlife champions’ for over twenty years carrying out numerous practical conservation tasks and wildlife surveys and many continue with these tasks. 

Support from Angela Peters from the Community Wildlife Plans Project (within the New Forest Land Advice Service) has helped provide technical expertise towards the production of this document and practical help in involving the local community. Members of staff from the New Forest Land Advice Service (Julie Melin-Stubbs and Rhys Morgan) and Georgianna Barnard (now with the Forestry Commission) have also contributed to the conservation advice in Milford-on-Sea. 

Several members of staff at the New Forest National Park Authority including Zoe Caals, Andy Bell, Jo Holmes, Tracy Weeks and Lucy Page have assisted in the production of the maps and graphics. Photographs used in the document have been supplied by the following people: Keith Metcalf, Anne Jenks, Angela Peters, Gary Palmer, Alan Sutton, Nik Knight, Victoria Freke, RPS Group PLC, Great Britain Non-Native Species Secretariat, Lucy Page and Mike Read (2005) www.mikeread.co.uk.

All residents were invited and many attended, the various events, some made specific points on the Action Plans.

To view the full Milford on Sea Biodiversity Action Plan - please click here. (The 5 Action Plans will be found in the Chapter 6 section.)

For further details, please contact:

Milford Conservation Volunteers (MCV)
www.milfordcv.org