This year the staff at Bowland Ecology contributed to the Bowland Haytime Project, a scheme launched by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The project aims to restore species-poor meadows by harvesting and spreading wildflower seed from species-rich ‘donor’ meadows, whilst raising public awareness of local hay meadows. Staff at Bowland Ecology surveyed meadows at Slaidburn to see how successful recent restoration has been, improving identification skills of grasses and wildflowers along the way.
The meadow restoration is proving to be very successful, with an abundance of new wildflower species, including the occasional orchid, colonising meadows that were previously managed as grazed pasture.
You can find out more about the project here: http://www.ydmt.org/programme-details-bowland-hay-time-14612”