Protected Sites on the Hoo Peninsula include

• Thames Estuary and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar Site (the three designations overlap, although the boundaries are all slightly different)
• Medway Estuary and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Ramsar Site
• Medway Estuary and Marshes Special Protection Area
• Northward Hill National Nature Reserve

Northward Hill National Nature Reserve

National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are designated by the Government's Nature Conservation Advisory body, English Nature in order to protect the country's most important wildlife sites. All NNRs are also Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Most NNRs are owned and managed by English Nature, although some, like Northward Hill, are owned and managed by other bodies.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT NATIONAL NATURE RESERVES

The Northward Hill National Nature Reserve is part of the RSPB's Northward Hill Reserve. The central part of the woodland is known to be ancient (i.e. more than 400 years old), surrounded by younger woodland and scrub. The wood supports Britain's largest colony of nesting herons, as well as breeding nightingales and scarce insects such as the white letter hairstreak butterfly.

The RSPB owns additional land outside the National Nature Reserve area, and has recreated grazing marsh on land which had been managed as arable. This has resulted in much increased numbers of breeding avocet, lapwings, redshanks and other birds, and increased numbers of wildfowl and waders in winter.

FOR MORE INFO ON NORTHWARD HILL RSPB RESERVE

Thames Estuary and Marshes
The protected areas of the Thames Estuary and Marshes extend some 15 km (10 miles) from Gravesend to the Isle of Grain, and take in 5286 hectares (over 20 square miles) of coastal grazing marsh, intertidal mudflats, saltmarsh and lagoons.

• Over a quarter of the UK's winter population of avocets;
• Around 1% of the UK winter population of hen harriers;
• 1% of all the ringed plovers wintering in Europe and North Africa;
• Over 1% of the entire North-West European wintering populations of redshank, knot, dunlin;
• Over 1% of the entire British population of wintering white-fronted geese, shelduck, gadwall, teal, curlew, pintail, shoveler, grey plover and black-tailed godwit;
• Over 1% of the migratory population of greenshank which passes through Britain each autumn; and
• Over 33 000 wintering wildfowl and waders, including redshank, grey plover, pintail, shelduck and many other species.

The area is also important for a range of nationally rare and scarce plants including least lettuce, golden samphire, small red goosefoot, slender hare's-ear, sea clover, sea kale, and two species of eel-grass. In addition, there are important assemblages of invertebrates, including the scarce emerald damselfly, the hoverfly Lejops vittata, and a large number of rare and scarce aquatic beetles. The Ramsar Site designation notes that the site performs important hydrological functions, including shoreline stabilization, flood water storage and maintenance of water quality by removal of nutrients.

FOR MORE INFO ON THAMES ESTUARY AND MARSHES SPA

FOR MORE INFO ON THE THAMES ESTUARY AND MARSHES RAMSAR SITE

Medway Estuary and Marshes

The protected area of the Medway Estuary and Marshes extends some 15km (about 10 miles) from Rochester to the Isle of Grain. It includes nearly 4700 hectares (over 18 square miles) of open water, intertidal mudflats, saltmarsh and coastal grazing marsh. It is primarily important for its bird populations, which include

• Over 4% of the British breeding population of avocets;
• Over 1% of the British breeding population of little terns;
• Around a quarter of the British wintering population of avocets;
• Over 1% of the Western European wintering populations of black-tailed godwit, dark-bellied brent goose, dunlin, grey plover, pintail, redshank, ringed plover and shelduck;
• A total of over 65 000 wildfowl and wading birds every winter, which include, among many others, little grebe, pintail, wigeon and oystercatcher.