Member Article

Multimillion pound boost to save UK’s Magnificent Meadows … and some of it's headed our way

For the first time in its history, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a unique partnership of conservation organisations and local councils, led by Plantlife, a significant sum for a national project to save the UK’s remaining fragments of meadow.

There were once natural wild flower meadows in every parish, but today only 2% of the meadows that existed in the 1930’s remain and nearly 7.5 million acres of wildflower meadow have been lost so far, and they are still being destroyed.

The Save our Magnificent Meadows Project, led by Plantlife, in close partnership with ten organisations including county Wildlife Trusts, The National Trust, the RSPB, Cotswold Conservation Board and Medway Valley Countryside Partnership, is a £3 million project which will transform the fortunes of our vanishing meadows and grasslands, working For, over the next four years, over 74,000 acres across the UK will be targeted and over 500,000 members of the public will be involved - a massive, but worthwhile, challenge

The Save our Magnificent Meadows project will protect, conserve and restore wildflower meadows and other grasslands across the UK, and will focus on the Fermanagh grasslands of Northern Ireland, the pastures of west Wales, Scottish grasslands from Edinburgh to Aberdeenshire, traditional meadows and pastures in southern England and the calaminarian and whin grasslands of the Tyne Valley in Northumberland.

Steve Lowe, Head of Conservation at Northumberland Wildlife Trust said: “The unique grassland communities of the whin sill and the river shingles of the Tyne are two of Northumberland’s most sensitive and scarce habitats, something we have a special responsibility for but which few people, even locally, know much about. If we are to stop the loss of these areas, we must take the time to understand, manage and celebrate them. This project funding will help to do that and to share the knowledge and experience across the whole of the UK.”

Meanwhile, Nicola Hutchinson from Plantlife commented: “For the conservation of grassland plants and other wildlife this is incredible news. Our aim all along has been to establish a programme and a profile for the ‘Cinderella of the Conservation World’. There has never been a grassland programme of this scale or ambition before and it is an amazing opportunity for Plantlife, for the project partners, for all the beneficiaries of the project and for grassland wildlife.”

Drew Bennellick, HLF’s Head of Landscape and Natural Heritage, said: “The Heritage Lottery Fund is proud to be supporting this project to help protect and sustain one of our most precious yet disappearing habitats.

‘Saving our Magnificent Meadows’ is brilliant in its simplicity, its partnership approach and its ability to harness the power of hundreds of volunteers. The project will deliver a landscape-scale ecological impact working across 55 sites from Scotland to the West Country.

He concluded: “It is projects like this that HLF is so keen to support to ensure we continue to benefit from the free ecosystem services these habitats provide and that they continue to survive for future generations to enjoy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .