It's habitat management time
We have almost 6 hectares of meadows on our site, home to a huge range of flora and fauna so meadow management is an essential part of our Reserve Management plan. Our meadows must be cut every year and we’re about to start this process. There are some basic principles we adhere to, but each meadow’s management varies slightly depending on the key species of flora and fauna it supports.
Basics
The meadows must be cut after the 15th of July in order to ensure that plants have the chance to seed. The cut hay should be left for 36 hours and turned over at least once to ensure that seeds are shed to ensure good dispersal and growth in subsequent years. The hay can then be removed to prevent it impeding the meadow’s development.
Some of the meadows, such as Wader Meadow, require 2 cuts over late summer/early autumn to ensure we achieve the short swards over winter which the grazing species using this area prefer.
On other meadows, we will aim to leave some longer patches of grasses to provide cover for wildlife and hunting opportunities for species such as barn owl and kestrel.
These cuts we are about to undertake are the first steps in our annual meadow management. In the coming months, the team will also be managing the scrub around the meadows’ edges which could easily overtake the grassy areas if not kept in check. They’ll also be managing the trees around these areas to ensure sufficient light can get through to enable the flora to flourish. They also need to control any non-native invasive plant species which can out compete our native flora, upsetting the ecosystem.
