Cumbrian hay meadows are in safe hands thanks to a three-year project
Conservation organisations have joined forces to save upland and lowland hay meadows and restore them to their former beauty.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria FWAG have launched a three-year project to identify and maintain hay meadows in the Lake District National Park and the wider Orton area, and to restore them where possible.
Hay Meadow ecologist, Claire Cornish, will survey 250 sites for their variety of flowers over the course of the project for the Cumbria Hay Meadows Project.
Hay meadows have been identified as an endangered habitat in the Cumbria Biodiversity Action Plan. It is estimated that less than 500 hectares of upland hay meadows still exist today in Cumbria.
Hay is the traditional winter food for livestock in the Lake District and only a few years ago our valley bottoms would have been filled with the distinctive sight and smell of meadow flowers such as globeflower, wood cranesbill and melancholy thistle. A combination of ploughing, drainage, reseeding and fertiliser have destroyed many of these gems.
Cornish said: "The data collected from each site will be used to create a management plan for the meadow, which the landowner will use as a guide. The data will also provide the basis for future conservation work on hay meadows in the area, creating a guideline for site quality and a list of flower seed donor sites, which can be used in restoration projects."
As well as finding and assessing sites, the project will also work with farmers, Natural England and environmental consultants to turn management plans in to practical action on the ground.
Bunty Wright, Hay Meadows Project adviser, will visit farms to discuss the potential for upgrading any Tier 1 land within the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) which meets the criteria for Tier 2 meadows and will also draw up Environmental Stewardship Higher Level Scheme applications on behalf of farmers.
