AFTER more than two decades showing the wonders of nature, East Oxford’s Boundary Brook Nature Park is still going strong.

More than 80 people attended an open day at the three-acre Boundary Brook Road nature reserve this month.

Youngsters and adults enjoyed a host of outdoor activities including pond-dipping and guided walks. The award-winning nature reserve is managed by Oxford Urban Wildlife Group, and its members hope its popularity will continue to grow.

Volunteer Victoria Hallam said: “It teaches children about things that they would not otherwise learn about or understand.

“It’s an opportunity to introduce their children to some of the basic things about life, like plants and creatures.

“They can have an experience that’s different from what they usually do.”

The nature park opened more than two decades ago after Oxford Urban Wildlife Group leased the former allotment site from Oxford City Council.

The land was then transformed into a nature reserve with woodland, pond, marsh area, a wildflower meadow, kitchen garden and demonstration wildlife garden for disabled residents.

Visitors to the Sunday, September 7, event were given advice and shown how to attract wildlife to their gardens. Plants and seeds popular with wildlife were also on sale.

Group secretary Janet Keene said: “We want to conserve the wildlife that is already in Oxford and possibly attract more.

“If we are going to survive on this planet we need to make sure that wildlife does the different things that needs to be done, like pollinating, and that we have the variety and beauty of nature around us so that even in a city we have a lot of green areas.”

East Oxford’s Alyson Duckmanton, 42, took daughter Xanthe Duckmanton-Ledbury, six, and son Benji Duckmanton, 11.

She said: “I thought it would be really good to take them out to nature. It’s so wild yet so close to where we live in the city; you feel like you’re in the middle of the countryside.”

Xanthe said: “It was really good. I was really happy because I caught three newts.”

The SS Mary and St John pupil added: “They were cute and tiny and one of them looked like it had half a dragon’s head.”

Her brother, who attends Cheney School, said: “The pond-dipping was really good. Just finding all the different creatures.”

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