Miles more meadows for the Yorkshire Dales!

May 24, 2023

Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust has led efforts to protect, restore and manage species rich wildflower meadows in the Yorkshire Dales since 2006.

Meadows are crucial in addressing biodiversity loss and climate change, and can support more than 700 species of wild plants, and a rich variety of animal life including up to 1,400 insect species. However, they are also amongst the most rare and threatened habitats in the UK, with more than 97% having been lost in the last century.

The appetite for restoring and creating meadows is growing – and thanks to the success of our recent campaigns we now have the chance to repair and restore more of our our precious wildflower meadows for future generations. We raised over £31,000 thanks to donations and match funding from the Aviva Community Fund and The Big Give Green Match Fund as well as being chosen by EOCA members to receive €30,000 (in spite of coming a very close second in the public vote!)

This funding will help support our aims over the next two years to restore at least 60 hectares of wildflower meadow across the Dales and Forest of Bowland by inspiring, training and enabling farmers and landowners to take action.

As well as restoration, we will enlist the help of volunteers to visit some of the 800 hectares of meadow we have restored over the years. We will bring people together through a citizen science project to survey the plants and wildlife found in meadows, painting a detailed picture of the state of upland hay meadows in the region. As well as surveying, we will also provide a host of activities ranging from meadow management and botanical identification training to guided and self-guided walks, inspiring people to support the sustainability of this priority habitat.

Hay Time Project Manager, Catherine Mercer, said: “Getting people out into meadows to record plants, insects, mammals, birds and fungi will help us recognise where our restoration has worked and where we might need to focus on enhancement, support our understanding of connectivity between meadows, and celebrate the flora and fauna they support. It’s great to be able to offer local people the opportunity to learn new skills and contribute to our work.”

Last year we restored 38.51 hectares of our precious wildflower meadows. We sowed 548kg of seed and planted 5,804 plug plants to bring lost wildflowers back to these sites.

Meanwhile, our Bee Together project worked with local communities to boost habitat for pollinators. It’s a sad fact Wildflower meadows
that half of our bumblebee species are in decline with seven species reducing by more than 50% in the last 25 years.

One group we worked with was Addingham Environment Group. Janet Hindle said: “It’s been brilliant to have practical support and encouragement to help with the sowing and planting of new wildflower rich meadow in and around Addingham. Our new meadow areas are in prominent places and we hope they will inspire everyone in the community to make space for wildflowers and support our bees and other
pollinators.”

Read more about our work to restore species-rich hay meadows.