Monmouthshire Meadows Group

Since our establishment in 2003 we have learned a great deal more about Monmouthshire's meadows, and been able to share this information with other conservation groups.  All of our members  are interested in the conservation of wildflower meadows.  

These are a few of our achievements as a group.

• Our surveys have shown that more than 30 fields belonging to about 20 members are of high botanical importance and have been designated as Local Wildlife Sites

• At one site there were 284 flowering heads of the greater butterfly orchid - more than had previously been recorded for the whole County.                    
• We have advised and helped many members to manage their sites through organised hay-cutting or grazing.
• We are able to record monitor the best methods for grazing, as some of our members keep Alpacas, llamas, donkeys, Exmoor ponies, Dexter cattle and Wiltshire Longhorn, Soay, Boreray and Ryland sheep.
• Work parties with volunteers have provided practical help to fellow members, for example pulling thistles and restoring a daffodil meadow.
• We share and exchange wildflower seeds from our own meadows and promote the restoration of semi-improved grasslands.

We have organised work on some members' meadows or enabled members to apply for funding through Local Agenda 21 grants for bramble and scrub removal, bracken cutting, fencing and hedge-laying.

• We have carried out training in botanical surveys for some members.
• We have organised open days to some members' fields and, with the Parish Grasslands Project, produced information boards about flower-rich meadows. 

Wildflower meadows are not only important for their flora, but support a wide range of fungi such as waxcaps and a wide range of faunal.  We have recorded a number of butterfly species, including common blues, dingy skipper, small skipper, ringlet, gatekeeper and meadow browns while surveying for plant species.  We have also recorded meadow ants, a key indicator of ancient, unimproved meadows and an important food source of the green woodpecker.

Hay meadows occur where the sward is cut every year after flowering.  Ripe flower seeds fall to the ground and germinate in the following spring.  Where the hay has been taken away it cannot form a mulch to enrich the soil.  Where it is left it will fertilise the sward, encouraging coarse grasses which shade and crowd out the more delicate flowering plants. For this reason it is important to take away the hay and never to fertilise meadows which are wanted for flowers as well as pasture.

If you have a meadow, or are interested in conserving wildflower meadows in Monmouthshire's landscape, please join us.  Application forms can be downloaded from our home page.