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This year on National Meadows Day, we are campaigning for the protection of irreplaceable meadows – and we need your help!
Our wildflower meadows are a powerful ally in the fight against climate change – but they are in trouble!
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Known as nature’s meadow maker, Yellow Rattle, is the single most important plant you need when creating a wildflower meadow.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Yellow rattle, commonly known as the meadow maker, is one of the most important plants you need for a meadow. Without it, vigorous grasses can grow unchecked and smother flowers you want to encourage.
As Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor grows in a meadow the grass will become thinner, making room for plants like Oxeye Daisy, Knapweeds and Vetches to appear. And if you’re lucky, maybe even an orchid will pop up.
Then large bees, especially bumblebees, move in and pollinate the flowers of yellow rattle and it’s large seed pods dry and ripen. This leaves the seeds rattling around inside. Farmers used to use the sound of the rattling seeds as their cue to cut the hay – hence the name.
Yellow Rattle is a very useful starting plant when making a wildflower meadow, but it can be a little tricky to establish. Here are some top tips to get you started:
If you have very fertile soil, it might be trickier to grow Yellow Rattle. Poor and infertile soils are best and following the steps above will help reduce the fertility of your soil over time.
Late summer (August-September) is the best time to sow Yellow Rattle. It will not grow successfully if sown in the spring. The seeds can be sown no later than November because they need about 4 months below 5C to germinate in the spring.
Yellow Rattle is easy to collect by hand. Simply hold a paper bag under the ripe seed pod and shake it gently with your fingers. Collecting larger quantities can easily be done using a vacuum or leaf blower.
WATCH: Plantlife’s Sarah Shuttleworth collects Yellow Rattle with a vacuum.
There are a number of reasons why Yellow Rattle may disappear from a meadow, including:
For meadows, we recommend 0.5-2.5kg per hectare/10-20g per m2 if you are collecting your own seed.
There are several possible reasons:
Your go-to guide for transforming places into flower-rich meadows.
Yellow Rattle, is the single most important plant you need when creating a wildflower meadow. Here’s everything you need to know.
Managing or making meadows, whether in a lawn or larger site, can sometimes lead to prickly problem plants like docks or nettles. Follow our expert advice for managing problem plants.
Want to start a community meadow, but not sure where to begin? Read our guide to creating a flower-filled haven for your local community.
If you’ve been taking part in the No Mow Movement, you might have spotted some wonderful wildflowers poking through your lawn.
Most lawns will have wildflowers seeded naturally in the soil – just waiting for a chance to bloom. It can be a fascinating part of the No Mow challenge, to see what comes through.
Here we share our top ten flowers to find! If you don’t have them all in your lawn, why not head out to your local green space for a nature-based treasure hunt!
Join our Specialist Botanical Advisor Sarah Shuttleworth on a nature-based treasure hunt around her No Mow Movement lawn. Or scroll through our list below and see if you can find them all!
Whether in your lawn, on a roadside, a park or playing field – you’re likely to find the Daisy Bellis perennis popping up from March right through to September.
These beautiful little wildflowers have become such a common part of our lives, they’ve even made it into our language. You might have heard the term, ‘it’s all coming up daisies’, which means that things are going well. The flower is even featured in slang, with ‘Daisy roots’ meaning boots.
It’s certainly a fun one to find and is thought of a sure sign of spring and summer – as well as often being associated with love. The Daisy was even said to be the sacred flower of the Norse goddess of love Freya.
A common, bright yellow flower that can be found in gardens, parks and meadows – the Creeping Buttercup Ranunculus repens is a common sight from April through to August.
If you’ve spotted one of these sunny little wildflowers before, you might have played the common test with your friends. For generations, children have grown up using buttercups, to hold under their chins to tell if they like butter. If the flower reflects a yellow hue under your chin, you like butter! The origin of this game is believed to come from a belief that buttercups gave butter it’s golden colour.
The Dandelion Taraxacum officinale agg is one of the first flowers you might spot in your lawn and one of the last! It can be a common sight from March, right the way through until October.
While it’s certainly likely that you’ll spot one of these pretty yellow flowers this summer – it also has many lookalikes that might trick you into thinking you’ve found one (we actually have one further down this list to keep a lookout for!).
There are a huge number of Dandelion microspecies, in the UK, we have around 250. It’s believed that more than 40 of these are endemic species, and the majority are native.
The Dandelion is truly a beautiful and often overlooked wildflower and while once revered as a ‘cure all’ medicinal herb, can now be thought of as a weed.
Read our blog here, where we weed out the myths behind the word ‘weed’.
Ribwort Plantain, Plantago lanceolata is a common sight and can be found year-round in grasslands including lawns, meadows and arable fields.
Sometimes thought of as a weed, it’s seed heads help to provide food for birds throughout much of the winter when other food sources are more scarce. The rest of the plant is also beneficial to lots of other wildlife. Ribwort Plantain provides both food and habitat for insects and pollinators including various species of moths and butterflies.
A unique-looking, violet blue wildflower, the Germander Speedwell Veronica chamaedrys can be spotted in grassy areas between March and July.
This beautiful little flower has a varied habitat and can be found in meadows, pastures, verges and lawns, as well as in woods, hedgerows and waste ground.
While not only a fun flower to find, it’s also thought to be a lucky one for travellers. In fact, people believed that wearing it, or other speedwells, in your buttonhole would ‘speed you well’ on any journey.
A tiny little yellow wildflower, Spotted Medick Medicago arabica is a common find in the south of the UK. It can be found from May until September in grasslands including lawns and roadsides.
This wildflower has very interesting seed pods (which can be seen properly in our video above), which are covered in little hooked hairs. These help the seed pods cling on to passing animals and encourage better distribution of the plant.
A fun little find, look out for other medicks and trefoils in your lawn including Bird’s-foot-trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, which is also known as ‘eggs and bacon’ because of the yellow and orange hue of the pea-like flowers.
More of a pink colour than red as the name suggests, Red Clover Trifolium pratense can be found in gardens, meadows, parks and fields from May until October.
This pretty little plant is a great one to find in your lawn for many reasons – one is that it’s a bit of a favourite with pollinators! The flowers of Red Clover are nectar and pollen rich, and attract many pollinators, in particular, bees.
The Meadow Buttercup Ranunculus acris is a common sight in grasslands including fields, meadows and gardens and can be spotted from April right through until October.
Another one from the buttercup family, the Meadow Buttercup is a taller variety than the Creeping Buttercup above, growing up to 1m in height.
Watch our video to find out more about them both the two and see if you can tell them apart.
The Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare can be found in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, gardens, dunes, coastal cliffs, verges and waste ground.
Seeing these big, bold and beautiful flowers is said to be a sure sign that summer has arrived as they are usually in bloom around the summer solstice.
Similar to the common Daisy (of which it is part of the same family), the Oxeye Daisy is much, much bigger, reaching as tall as 70cm.
Cat’s-Ear Hypochaeris radicata, is a common sight in lawns, fields, parks and roadsides from June until September.
The bright yellow flowers can look very similar to the Dandelion above, but there are some key differences. One difference is that the Cat’s-Ear, has hairy leaves while Dandelions do not. Also, Cat’s-Ear, can have multiple flowerheads and branching stems, while Dandelions instead have one flowerhead per stem.
Watch the video above to learn more about the Cat’s-Ear, and how you can tell it apart from the Dandelion.
Did you manage to find them all?
We would love to see what flowers you have been finding right through the No Mow Movement, so be sure to tag us on social media to show us the pretty blooms you’ve found.
A journey to return one of the UK's rarest wildflowers to the wild has made a major step to success.
Did you know that dreaming of Harebells is said to be a sign of true love, or that Daffodils are used to celebrate a couple's first decade of marriage?
Our meadows have been part of our natural heritage for centuries and cared for by people for generations – but they are now more at risk than ever before.
We’re in the height of summer, with sun and ice cream on the mind, which must mean one thing – National Meadows Day is here! What better time to shine a light on these incredible habitats and take action to protect them.
Did you know that meadows have been part of our natural heritage for centuries? They have been cared for by people for generations and we cannot let them disappear.
How would you feel if someone knocked down an historical building like the Houses of Parliament, just to build it somewhere else? Or reduced Edinburgh Castle to rubble and created a lacklustre replica. It wouldn’t be the same, right?
The same applies to meadows, which are now more at risk than ever.
Without proper protections, the destruction of meadows is continuing across Britain. That’s why we’re calling for irreplaceable meadows to be added to the Irreplaceable Habitats list.
Meadows support a whole array of valuable wildlife. The unique interplay of geology, weather, and grazing animals have favoured particular communities of plants, which form relationships with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.
Layers and layers of soil have built over time in meadows, and are home to wiggling earthworms, busy insects, and a whole planet-worth of microbes.
The complex relationships between wildlife in meadows are finely balanced. For example, the Adonis Blue butterfly only feeds on Horseshoe Vetch. If this plant disappeared in a local area, so too would the butterfly.
This would then impact ants which have a reciprocal relationship with the butterfly, thus reducing food sources for birds – and so on.
These meadows are magnificent crucibles of life and cannot be recreated within a meaningful timeframe.
National Meadows Day, the first Saturday in July is the perfect time to celebrate the sweet-smelling, colourful cacophony of meadows. From the white froth of Meadowsweet, to purple pom-pom heads of Devil’s-bit Scabious straining to be seen.
While National Meadows Day is a celebration of the meadows that we have, it’s also a time to highlight all the meadows that have been lost.
The past century has seen them ploughed, over-fertilised, bulldozed for buildings, and destroyed by misplaced tree planting.
An estimated 97% of all of our meadows have been lost, many of these meadows are historic, irreplaceable meadows. Meadows that have been in our society and communities for centuries, unique habitats that has well-established ecosystems that we and nature relies on.
The remaining meadows that have clung on through the decades or centuries are the last bastions of our farming and cultural heritage. These meadows are truly irreplaceable and we want to protect them for the future.
To protect meadows, we’re calling for irreplaceable meadows to be added to the Irreplaceable Habitats List. But, what does this mean?
The UK Government has classed some habitats, like ancient woodlands and blanket bogs, as irreplaceable habitats. This means that they should have more protection in planning policy, where they can’t be harmed by development unless in exceptional circumstances.
In England, the UK Government is proposing sweeping changes to planning policy with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which puts our most beloved habitats and wildlife at risk of inappropriate development.
That’s why it’s more important than ever for these meadows to be recognised as irreplaceable habitats and get the protections they both deserve and need.
Governments must take action now. We’re calling for the UK Government to add irreplaceable meadows and grasslands to the list of irreplaceable habitats,
We also want to see the Scottish Government take this important step. While the Welsh Government has explicitly listed species-rich grasslands as a type of irreplaceable habitat, there’s still work to get Government to understand their value.
Help us make sure that irreplaceable meadows are not just a memory. Take action by:
What do you think of when you hear the word 'weed'? Join us as we uncover the myths #and delve into what it really means.
This National Meadows Day, we need your help to call on our governments to protect our irreplaceable meadows – don’t let meadows become a memory!
This National Meadows Day, we are calling on governments to protect our irreplaceable meadows.
Currently the government has an Irreplaceable Habitat list, which includes ancient woodlands, blanket bogs, coastal sand dunes and lowland fens. These habitats have a level of protection, which states, “development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats (such as ancient woodland and ancient or veteran trees) should be refused, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons”.
However, there are no such protections for our ancient meadows and nothing to stop them from disappearing – and once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.
Meadows are interwoven into our natural heritage and have been cared for by people for centuries – we cannot let them disappear. Read more about why meadows are so important, here.
Land bordering our Lugg Meadows Nature Reserve is currently facing the threat of development. The meadows by the River Lugg were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, making them at least a decade older than the houses of parliament!
We wouldn’t allow one of our historic buildings to be destroyed for development, so why let it happen to our meadows?
This National Meadows Day we want the governments to live up to their commitments to protect nature by including irreplaceable meadows on the list of other irreplaceable habitats.
A great way for you to take action and help us protect irreplaceable meadows is by writing to your MP or MSP.
You can copy the below text and add your own thoughts or examples of historic buildings or monuments local to you.
Use this website to find your MP’s name and email address, or this website for your MSP if you live in Scotland.
Dear X,
I’m writing as your constituent at [include your postcode] to ask you to help save our irreplaceable meadows.
Please ask the UK Government to live up to their commitments to protect nature, by including irreplaceable meadows on the list of other irreplaceable habitats in England.
Around 97% of England’s wildflower meadows have likely been destroyed in the last century. Without better protections, remaining historic meadows risk “vanishing beneath our feet” after centuries of care by farmers and communities.
These meadows are irreplaceable treasures in our culture and heritage, on a par with our historic buildings and monuments. Their carbon-rich soils and myriad of rare wildlife species have often taken centuries or longer to form. Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. We wouldn’t say that the Houses of Parliament could be destroyed and simply re-built elsewhere – the same applies to our historic meadows.
Meadows are the ultimate multi-taskers and provide a wealth of critical benefits, such as climate mitigation and adaptation, nutritious food, wildlife habitat, flooding alleviation, and cleaner air and water.
The Government must live up to their commitments to protect nature by protecting irreplaceable meadows – they must be included on the list of irreplaceable habitats. Planning rules need to safeguard irreplaceable meadows as the true national treasures that they are!
Please see Plantlife’s website for more detail.
Best wishes,
Please ask the Scottish Government to live up to their commitments to protect nature, by including irreplaceable meadows on the list of other irreplaceable habitats in Scotland.
The majority of Scotland’s wildflower meadows and grasslands have already been destroyed in the last century. Without better protections, remaining historic meadows risk “vanishing beneath our feet” after centuries of care by farmers and communities.
These meadows are irreplaceable treasures in our culture and heritage, on a par with our historic buildings and monuments. Their carbon-rich soils and myriad of rare wildlife species have often taken centuries or longer to form. Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. We wouldn’t say that Edinburgh Castle could be destroyed and simply re-built elsewhere – the same applies to our historic meadows.
[Your name]
Our meadows are incredible and irreplaceable habitats – and they’re in trouble!
Join us this National Meadows Day to make sure our meadows don’t become a memory.
Plantlife’s National Meadows Day is an annual celebration on the first Saturday of July, to celebrate these incredible habitats and our connection to them, which goes back to our ancestors.
For centuries people have been caring for our meadows – but they are now more at risk than ever.
This #NationalMeadowsDay, we are calling on the government to protect irreplaceable meadows, and we need your help.
The same applies to meadows. Without proper protections, the destruction of meadows is continuing.
That’s why we’re calling for irreplaceable meadows to be added to the Irreplaceable Habitats list.
This National Meadows Day, we need your help to make sure our meadows don’t become just a memory.
Take a moment to unwind this National Meadow’s Day.
The changes to insects, wildflowers and people have been ‘mind-blowing’ since the National Museum of Scotland started taking part in the No Mow Movement.
We asked Entomology Curator Ashleigh Whiffin how it’s made a positive impact to insect biodiversity and how it’s helping her work as an entomologist.
Watch our full video below.
I have always been a big supporter of No Mow May and the No Mow Movement because I think it’s an incredible campaign for raising awareness of wildflowers and this is vital if we’re going to improve the available habitat for insects.
There had been an interest among staff in participating in the No Mow Movement, but really what spurred it on was the lockdown periods. During this time the contractors didn’t come in to mow the grass and displayed a little version of what could be.
Initially, we just wanted to see what was here naturally. The site had been manicured for many years, so the grass was incredibly short and flowers were not given the opportunity to bloom.
When we first left the site to grow in lockdown, we started to see wonderful flowers like Oxeye Daisy and Cuckooflower – things I know insects love.
Native wildflowers are most important to insects because these are the species that they have evolved alongside and they provide them with the exact food sources they need.
We have also done a little bit of enhancement and added Primroses and Cowslips to the grassland to provide an early supply of nectar and pollen for some of our spring pollinators. And then we’ve also added Yellow Rattle, which has probably had the biggest impact. The Yellow Rattle has spread throughout the 4 years that we’ve been doing this project, and it’s really made quite a difference.
I think my favourite flower is possibly the Common Knapweed because I love its bright pop of colour and seeing a bee really stuck face-first deep into the flower is really satisfying.
One of my favourite things about us participating in the No Mow Movement has been the insects that we’re recording, including things that were not here before.
Everything from butterflies to moths to beetles and bees – and one of the biggest noticeable differences is the number of butterflies in recent years.
We’ve recorded 16 species of butterflies on our site during this period. They’re not all breeding here but that number is almost half of the butterflies recorded in Scotland, so that’s pretty good going! And because we’ve allowed our areas to grow, we found that we have a wonderful population now of Small Skipper butterflies.
The adult butterflies really need the floral resources to get the pollen and nectar. But their offspring need some breeding habitat, so the diversity of grasses we have are really important.
I’ve loved being able to work with my colleagues out on the grounds and interact in different ways than we usually would. It definitely has the mental health benefits to many of the staff and volunteers.
Also, the sounds of nature. Sitting near the meadow on your lunch break and hearing the grasshoppers and seeing the butterflies dance along the meadow – it’s a really nice experience.
There’s also a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that we’ve made these changes and they’ve been really positive.
The management plan that we developed has totally rewritten what was happening here before and we have transformed the site during the course of the last 4 years.
Instead of the grass being cut every 2 weeks, we have just particular areas of the grass that are cut. Most of the grassland is left and we just have edges of the green spaces, the perimeter of the site and then designated pathways cut during the growing season. We also leave areas long all winter to create habitat for wildlife.
It’s been a delicate balance of trying to make sure that we’re enhancing the biodiversity but not disrupting any access.
The National Museum’s collection centre is in the north of Edinburgh in an urban area. Our site is pretty unassuming – it’s an urban plot that is a series of buildings with green spaces laced between them.
But we have become a little bit of a green haven for the local wildlife.
As an institution, the No Mow Movement really nicely aligns with our aims as we research biodiversity, particularly Scottish insects, which is one of my focuses.
And of course, we’re very concerned about the environmental and biodiversity crisis right now. So doing something more with our own green space that we have was a natural way forward. I really hope that what we’ve done on our site can show other organisations what’s possible.
If I had to list everything that we found, we would be here for a very, very long time. We’ve got countless moths, butterflies, bees and bugs including:
With insects being more plentiful, that’s also been great for the birdlife and we’ve had Blue Tits and Great Tits nesting on site and foraging, collecting caterpillars for their young.
We’ve also had a number of mammals, some of which can’t be recorded in the day. So, by setting up camera traps, we’ve been able to see some of the nocturnal wildlife, predominantly that’s our foxes.
The biodiversity loss that we’re facing and biodiversity declines that we’re seeing are a very real and quite scary issue.
Now more than ever, it’s so important that we use any little scrap of space that we can to make things a little bit wilder and support our biodiversity.
By participating in the No Mow Movement it’s given us this whole opportunity to look at the insect life and our biodiversity right on our doorstep at the Collections Centre in a totally different way.
It’s clear that by giving power to the flowers and encouraging those native grasses can have a huge impact on our insect biodiversity.
Plantlife's Road Verges Advisor Mark Schofield reveals how to keep your thriving No Mow May flowering lawn blossoming into June.
Join us and expert botanist Ben Averis for this meadows ID training session to get ready for a season of surveys.
We have an exciting opportunity for people to join us, along with expert botanist Ben Averis, for a meadows ID training session in the Cairngorms.
This training session aims to give you skills to identify a number of wild plants that we find in our grasslands in Scotland.
After the session, there will also be further volunteering opportunities to join surveys at 4 farms later this summer.
In partnership with Pastures for Life, we have been supporting 4 farmers to trial novel grazing techniques. These techniques have been designed to improve biodiversity in upper Strathspey in the Cairngorms National Park for the past 4 years.
This summer volunteers will then be leading on a rapid habitat assessment, revisiting quadrats previously assigned to assess habitat improvement.
Location: The upcoming training session will take place on June 7 at Nethy Bridge in the Cairngorms.
Accessibility: This training covers rough terrain and will be off paths. There will also be some steep slopes.
Facilities: There are no toilet facilities on site.
Refreshments: Tea and coffee will be provided, and volunteers are asked to bring a packed lunch on the day.
It’s not just trees that capture and store carbon, our meadows and grasslands play an important role too.
If you’re taking part in No Mow May this year, then your garden will be well on its way to becoming a beautiful, biodiverse haven for nature. But there is a bonus to helping the wildflowers grow – as you allow lawn to become meadow, your garden becomes your very own carbon store, helping to reduce your carbon footprint.
When carbon sequestration is mentioned, most minds turn to trees. As a society we are more aware than ever before of the role of woodlands in combatting climate change and creating a space for nature. Much less discussed is the remarkable and equally vital role our grasslands and meadows can play in increasing biodiversity and capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere.
When we create healthy grasslands and meadows by mowing or grazing livestock, we are simply replicating the activity of the herds of large wild herbivores that once moved across our hills and valleys. These habitats – if the grazing is gentle, infrequent and low intensity – recreate prehistoric landscapes and provide a home for our wild plants, insects, birds and fungi. Natural and semi-natural grasslands (meaning those that are farmed but in a traditional, less intensive manner) improve the quality of our water, prevent flooding and help increase the resilience of farming to summer droughts.
This grassland – and the healthy soil beneath it – also has an incredible and little-known potential to lock away atmospheric carbon. Soil carbon is a particularly valuable store; it is far more stable and long lasting than the carbon in trees, which is vulnerable to forest fires, pests and disease.
As plants live and grow, carbon from the atmosphere is drawn down into the plants’ roots, where the myriad creatures in the soil make use of it, locking it away beneath the ground. As the diversity of plants on the surface increases, so does the diversity of microorganisms, fungi and invertebrates beneath it. The more diverse the soil life, the richer the entire ecosystem – and the more carbon the soil can store.
The almost mystical role of mycorrhizal fungi is now well known. They connect roots to the nutrients in the soil, trading sugars that plants and trees create from sunlight with locked away minerals the fungi extract from the soil. We now know that plants and trees can communicate through these fungal networks, alerting them to pests and diseases and passing nutrients to others in need.
Mycorrhizal fungi have another important role – they are critical in the ability of plants to transfer carbon to the soil. In areas of farmland, meadow and garden where the soil is ploughed, fertilised or dominated by a small number of grass species, these mycorrhizal networks are much less effective – with fewer species and a lower carbon storage potential. When we look after our farmland and gardens with care, mowing and grazing infrequently and gently, avoiding ploughing and pesticides, we nurture our mycorrhizal fungi, helping the soil to become a more potent carbon store.
By taking part in No Mow May, you will not only begin to create a home for wildflowers and insects, you will also create healthier soils that nourish your garden plants – and reduce your carbon footprint in the process.
England alone has around 640,000 hectares of private garden. If just a quarter of this area was transformed into wildflower rich meadow – by mowing just once or twice a year and collecting the cuttings – then these garden soils could potentially capture and store an additional amount of carbon equivalent to more than 3 million average cars’ annual emissions within a spade’s depth, and well over 10 million cars in soils as deep as one meter*.
Lawns and gardens are of course just one part of the puzzle – the UK’s farmed grassland landscape offers tremendous potential for us to sequester carbon, while also protecting agriculture and biodiversity.
Farmers and landowners have a fundamental role to play – combining food production with sustainable grasslands that lock away carbon in healthy, ecologically rich soils. Some 40% of the UK’s land area is grassland – but much of this is intensively farmed, limiting its potential for carbon storage.
Globally, studies have suggested that 2.3-7.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalents per year could be sequestered through grassland diversity restoration. Carbon sequestration doesn’t just mean more trees. Healthy grassland, with the more sensitive grazing and less intensive farming that nourishes it, also keeps carbon out of the atmosphere.
No matter how large or small our garden, we all have a role to play, and we can all make a difference. It’s easy to get started – just put your lawnmower away this May!
The National Museum of Scotland has transformed its collections centre into a haven for insects and local wildlife by taking part in the No Mow Movement. Learn how.
We are developing the first grassland-specific toolkit to help farmers restore more species-rich grasslands and access alternative forms of finance.
Species-rich grasslands can deliver enormous benefits for wildlife, biodiversity and the climate. With approximately 97% of the UK’s species-rich grassland lost in less than a century, we are working with farmers to protect and restore them.
Supporting smaller farms, with less resources, is a great opportunity to support food production and the restoration of grassland.
In this project, we will lead partners in creating a toolkit with funding from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) to complete the ‘Realising grassland potential: an ecosystems services toolkit for farmers’ project.
In this project, we will develop the first grassland-specific ecosystem services toolkit, with a focus on smaller farms. It will explore the types of grass, soil, grazing and cutting regimes and provide farmers with advice on how to engage effectively with emerging private finance opportunities – to help their transition to a more regenerative grassland management approach.
Smaller farms produce significantly lower farm business incomes, which can be a barrier to engaging in the nature market as they don’t have the resources to pay for surveys and planning. So, this toolkit will provide an accessible tool to help farmers make informed decisions.
Through this, we will also showcase how species-rich grassland can deliver ecosystem services.
A mechanism, like this toolkit, will help more people understand the importance of species-rich grassland as a source of ecosystem services. It will also support farmers to more easily access funding to protect, restore, create and manage this valuable habitat.We also hope the project will lead to greater recognition of the important role farming can play in maintaining the ecosystem functions of grasslands.We will also be working with farmers to understand their concerns, ambitions and considerations for land use. Once completed, this toolkit will be piloted by farmers in England, which we will continue to monitor and support.
We are working in partnership to produce this toolkit with our partners Floodplain Meadows Partnership, Finance Earth, National Landscape Association and Pasture for Life. Advisory partners in the project include Nature Friendly Farming Network, Soil Association, Soil Association Exchange, Natural England and UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Plantlife is bringing about a transformation in the way Britain’s road verges are managed, with the aim of at least 50% of verges being managed as species-rich grassland.
Meadow Makers is a partnership project, led by Plantlife, that restored over 400 hectares of species-rich grassland across England and involved over 12,000 people in meadow making.
To restore our native wildflowers, councils need to make long-term commitments to transforming their management of road verges. Have a look at the amazing work done by local authorities.
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