Saving the small things that run the planetThe ‘Restoring Richmond’s Lost Meadows’ project is a partnership with the Richmondshire Landscape Trust, the National Trust and North Yorkshire County Council. The project has restored approximately 20 ha of wildflower-rich meadows and pastures around Richmond, North Yorkshire providing pollen and nectar for many kinds of insects, including bees, butterflies, hoverflies and moths.
The B-Lines through Richmond aim to link the internationally important hay meadows of upper Swaledale with other wildflower-rich areas to the north and south, improving the habitat links in the region.
The project partners harvested seed from local meadows and used this to re-introduce many wildflowers which have been missing from the area for a long time. These grasslands will take time to recover, but gradually we will see more flowers and with those, more bumblebees and butterflies. In addition we have restored neglected grassland through programmes of scrub and invasive weed control, and by introducing new grassland management regimes. Helped by the erection of new fencing and gates, grazing has also been re-introduced to an area of riverside grazing and already significant benefits are being seen to the wildflowers of the area.
This project was supported by the SITA Trust Enriching Nature Fund and the Co-operative Group, and was carried out in partnership with the Richmondshire Landscape Trust and the National Trust. In addition we must thank the landowners who kindly granted us permission to harvest seed from their meadows to use in the grassland restoration work. Also a big thanks to the North Yorkshire County Council volunteers who provided much needed help with scrub clearance and plug planting.
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