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Being mindful about meadows

Sweep netting

Discover more about maintaining the beauty of meadows with Amy...

Spring is probably the busiest season of the year for wildlife. This means that as conservationists we definitely have a lot of work to do! Something that has particularly interested me during my time as a trainee is meadow management.

When I first started volunteering for the Trust as an Outdoor Origins youth group member, I was introduced to sweep netting. I was fascinated by it! You can catch so many different invertebrates in such a small area, helping to paint a great picture of the diversity of species within a meadow or grassy area of habitat.

Flowers (pink) of the cuckoo flower with a yellow and black striped hoverfly sitting on it by Amy Fleming

Cuckoo flower by Amy Fleming

Now that spring is in full swing, you can definitely see signs of wildflowers like cuckoo flower or ragged robin, some of which I saw on one of our site of special scientific interest (SSSI) meadows not too long ago! On this visit I was able to closely look at what I thought was a field of grasses in more detail - with the help of a botanist, I identified lots of species of wildflower. It’s something I have never done before and would definitely encourage people to do, whether you are out on a walk or  in your own back garden! When you take a closer look you can see so many different leaf structures and colours, which all indicate different species of flora.

To add to my knowledge of meadow management I have most recently gained my brushcutter certificate. Cutting and grazing areas of meadow are both incredibly important tools to ensure the species richness and diversity of these precious places. Without the correct management these habitats would become overgrown with scrub and, over many years, turn into secondary woodland. This is where the training that I've had as a trainee comes in handy, it means that I can quickly and efficiently, at the correct times of the year, cut back encroaching bramble and nettles to allow areas of wildflowers to flourish.

4 trainees wearing brushcutter safety helmets and posing for the camera by Iain Turbin

Conservation trainees by Iain Turbin

Something that I also learnt is that when you are working on an area of meadow or grassland and you have either mowed or cut back the vegetation, raking or moving it away prevents the cuttings rotting and fertilising the soil. If the soil is too fertile, unwanted vegetation such as bramble, nettles and coarse grasses will start to populate the meadow. As a result, wildflower populations can be wiped out because the area will become too dense and the more delicate flowers would have to compete against such vegetation. 

The reason why meadows are so important is because they are havens for lots of different organisms such as bees, beetles, butterflies, moths - the list could go on! Bees and hoverflies will pollinate the flowers within the meadows but will also travel further afield to pollinate other flowers. We've lost c97% of our flower-rich meadows in the last 70 years and many of Worcestershire's meadows are now isolated and delicate fragments of what once was so common. Many of the meadows are connected through the landscape via hedgerows and verges and it is so wonderful to see the connectivity of habitats such as these and know that we are helping nature to thrive for futures to come!

I am looking forward to seeing the meadows in full bloom, with lots of busy invertebrates living in amongst the flowers.  I also cannot wait to get stuck into helping manage more of our nature reserves and put my brushcutter training into practice.

 

An original member of our Outdoor Origins youth volunteer group, Amy Fleming loves everything wild. She is hoping that her traineeship will lead to a career in conservation where she'll be able to make a difference for our wildlife and environment.

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