A healthy future for Cumbria’s glorious grasslands
What are hay meadows and grasslands and why do they matter?
Species-rich grasslands, such as hay meadows, are some of the UK’s best havens for wildlife, and Cumbria is one of their few remaining strongholds. There can be up to 120 different species of wildflower and grasses in one field, not to mention the insect and bird life that flourishes in them.
These beautiful but rare and vanishing habitats are part of our cultural and natural heritage, and have been part of traditional farming practices for the last 6,000 years. Meadow plants have also adapted to Cumbria’s cool and wet climate, and provide nutritious food for sheep and cattle.
But even here, wildlife-rich grasslands have been disappearing at an alarming rate, and we need to act now to restore them before we lose some species completely. Less than 500 hectares of hay meadows remain in Cumbria – a total area that’s smaller than Derwentwater. Our remaining meadows are often in isolated small fragments, cut off from each other.
What can we do?
It’s not too late to bring back our wildflower havens and the species that depend on them in all their glory, but we need to act now. Cumbria Wildlife Trust is working closely with farmers, landowners and partners to help restore, enhance and create species-rich meadows that we can all be proud of.
Donate to help our grasslands and pollinators
Help us to restore a network of connected, thriving wildlife-rich grasslands, where nature can recover. Together we can sow the seeds of a healthy future for Cumbria’s glorious grasslands.
Our grassland restoration projects
We work closely with a wide range of funders and partners. Our grassland restoration projects:
Cumbria Seed Bank aims to bring back 14 rare wildflowers in Cumbria that are disappearing from our grasslands: bistort, globeflower, lady’s mantle, spignel, marsh marigold, wood crane’s-bill, melancholy thistle, wood bitter vetch, devil’s-bit scabious, saw-wort, grey green sedges, betony, great burnet, and dyer’s greenweed.
These 14 flowers are harder to grow from seed and establish. We want to develop the techniques and skills needed to help these wildflowers thrive. Once grown to plants, they’ll be planted out in the South Lakes by young people who will gain new technical and practical experience and, we hope, new friends and networks. This is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund and thanks to National Lottery players.
Cumbria Seed Bank will also restore 35 Hectares over 20 meadows in the Westmorland Dales that will benefit from enhancement work through the introduction of their ’missing’ species, which are generally harder to establish in our meadows. Seeds for these rarer species will be collected, cleaned and grown by the seedbank staff and volunteers. This element of the project is funded by Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. More information can be found here
Lake District National Park Meadows has been running since 2017. This project involves a longstanding partnership with National Trust to survey meadows on National Trust farms across the Lake District and on National Trust holdings across Cumbria. Following survey work, additional funding is sourced to restore or enhance degraded meadows and return them to their former glory.
The following two projects are funded through the ‘Farming in the Protected Landscape’ programme run by Lake District National Park:
Managing meadows for the future supports landowners and farmers with the ongoing management of grasslands that are being restored to species-rich meadow habitats and have recently received seed, green hay or plug plants.
This project also provides opportunities for landowners and farmers to gain additional support and training through nature-friendly farming workshops that include species ID training, wildflower sowing and growing and farmers meetings with updates for countryside stewardships options around meadows and their management, and the wider benefits of traditionally managed hay meadows within the landscape.
Iconic Meadows celebrates the spectacular meadows we have here in Cumbria, and aims to highlight their importance. Working with landowners and tenants, this project will restore 4.82 hectares of floodplain meadow in the Langdales. We're delivering a range of public and farmers' events to showcase the different types of meadows we have here, and their national importance. We hope that this project leads on to a Cumbria-wide project where we work closely with partners to deliver key grassland priority conservation actions for Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy and government biodiversity targets including 30X30.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust is also delivering grassland restoration work as part of Cumbria Connect Endangered Landscape Project. Spanning 42,000 hectares across both the Lake District National Park and Yorkshire Dales National Park, this is one of the largest nature recovery programmes in the UK. This project runs to 2028, and its mission is to work together with farmers and a wide range of organisations to restore nature and revitalise our stunning landscape, reversing decades of wildlife and habitat decline.
Curlew © Jon Hawkins - Surrey Hills Photography
Brown hare © David Tipling 2020VISION
Skylark © Vaughn Matthews
Brown Robin meadow orchids © Cumbria Wildlife Trust
Working with farmers and landowners
Cumbria is a great place for hay meadows and wildlife-rich grasslands but without action we'll lose them.
Farmers have a crucial role to play in restoring Cumbria’s meadows. They can keep these meadows rich in wildlife, and maintain the number and variety of wildflowers, through practices such as grazing and haymaking. These habitats rapidly become degraded if they are chemically fertilised, abandoned, or overgrazed.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust works closely with farmers, landowners and partners to help restore, enhance and create species-rich meadows across Cumbria – thriving wildlife havens we can all be proud of.
Much of the grassland work we do is delivered through grant funded programmes and projects, where a range of opportunities are often available to farmers and landowners, who may be able to benefit, without cost. This includes capital works such as seeding or plug planting, as well as contractor costs. Please email us, if you are interested in being added to our list of prospective meadow restoration or enhancement sites. Sites need to be a minimum of 1 acre.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust provides a range of services to help farmers and landowners with their grasslands, everything from ad hoc advice to the writing of implementation plans for Countryside Stewardship Agreements, and examples of the services we provide include:
- Site visit, grassland botanical surveys and soil testing
- Site specific restoration and/or management plans including PA1/ PA2
Contact us at grassland@cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk to find out more.
We need your help
We’d like to support landowners with rare species-rich meadows and the wild flowers within them. If you think you have a suitable meadow, and would like to work with us on a plan, get in touch
Visiting hay meadows
Hay meadows are at their best during June and July, when flowers are in full bloom and about to set seed. Meadows are often cut for hay in the middle of July, sometimes a bit later, so be sure to visit before the meadow is cut. Below is information about meadows that can be enjoyed using public footpaths around Cumbria, and to help you identify different meadow flowers.
Managing roadside verges
Cumbria has hundreds of miles of special roadside verges. They're remains of flower-rich meadows which would have once been a common sight and are incredibly important for insects. These roadside verge networks connect habitats and green spaces, meaning wildlife can move freely across our landscape.
Many people and organisations are involved in managing our verges: Westmorland and Furness Council, Cumberland Council, National Highways, Parish Council, Farmers and Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
Verges are cut at different times for different reasons, such as safety and when the flowers in that particular verge are likely to have set seed.
