Meadow Makers was a project initially funded via the National Lottery Heritage Fund and led by PlantLife and later led by Cumbria Wildlife Trust via a Farming in Protected Landscape programme grant. Within the Arnside & Silverdale National Landscape 11 meadows and limestone grassland areas were enhanced across the area.
Why Grasslands Are Important
As is widely quoted but never easy to read, meadows and other species-rich grasslands now cover less than 1% of the UK. Since the 1930’s 97% of species-rich grasslands across the country have been lost, both to intensification; such as increased livestock numbers, application of slurry and artificial fertilisers, and abandonment, with rough pasture generally being more difficult to access or utilise the grazing with more continental breeds.
Well-managed grasslands support a wide range of plants, fungi, insects, reptiles and ground nesting birds such as skylarks, curlews and meadow pipits. Insect pollinators in particular need wildflower-rich grasslands to provide food (pollen and nectar), with these in turn providing food for other wildlife including birds and bats.
Over the past few years, however, this has started to shift, with growing numbers of nature reserves, farms, verges and gardens working to increase the botanical species diversity of their grasslands, and in helping to increase insect, bird and mammal numbers.
You can find a number of different species rich grasslands in the National Landscape including lowland meadows, limestone pastures, fen, floodplain meadows, orchards and verges.
Species rich grasslands are vitally important habitats:
- Home and a food supply for a vast amount of wildlife
- Can help to prevent flooding in urban areas
- Store and sequester carbon – playing in a huge part in mitigating against climate change
- Produce food – look out for local produce
The Meadow Makers Project in the Arnside & Silverdale National Landscape
As part of the project we undertook activities such as:
- carrying out soil samples
- conducting baseline botanical surveys
- harvesting seed from ‘donor’ meadows (including using Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s vacuum harvester!)
- planting seed and plug plants in ‘receptor’ meadows
Maintaining healthy meadow habitats isn’t as simple as planting some seeds and leaving them to it – meadows need to be harvested at the right time of year and properly managed over a long period in order to flourish. We have also facilitated training sessions in traditional meadow management techniques – including a scything refresher course from Steve Tomlin.
We also celebrated National Meadows Day 2021 with a combination of a schools event with Arnside National School in Coldwell Meadows, a stall at Warton Crag quarry meadow for the general public and online activities including a wide range of colouring sheets. The Landscape Trust also organised a walk in Coldwell Horseshoe for National Meadows Day.
A healthy meadow habitat is a biodiverse one – so look out for lots of different species of plants and animals. Meadows should be noisy and full of life. Some of the meadow plants we are focusing on include yellow rattle and eyebright, which are semi-parasitic and therefore keep grass in check – giving other wildflowers the room to flourish. We’re hoping to see species such as bird’s foot trefoil, ribwort plantain, red clover and rough hawkbit making inroads into meadow habitats; these species will eventually be followed by popular plants such as orchids.
Find out more about managing meadows:
Some links to useful info on managing and creating species rich grasslands: