Wildflower meadows vital to bring back nature
TV Springwatch pioneer Stephen Moss is giving a free online talk about restoring wildflower meadows
BEST-SELLING nature writer and broadcaster Stephen Moss is giving a free online talk to illustrate why creating wildflower meadows is important for turning around wildlife declines and helping to tackle climate change.
The ‘Why meadows matter’ talk, tomorrow (Wednesday February 3 at 7.30pm) focuses on a key habitat for the subject of Stephen Moss’s latest book, The Swallow: A Biography.
Wildflower-rich meadows are home to a diverse array of insects. That means they are important places not only for bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinators, but also for the smaller prey species hunted by insect-eating birds such as swallows.
The online event has been organised by Dartmoor-based Moor Meadows, a community wildflower and wildlife conservation group.
Traditional wildflower meadows have disappeared from most of the English countryside, largely due to changes in agriculture during the 20th century. With the loss of diverse wild plants came an associated loss of insects and other wildlife.
But in recent years, techniques have been perfected to re-create wildflower-rich grasslands. As groups such as Moor Meadows have shown, wildflower meadows can be restored or created on farmland, in gardens and churchyards, and on roadside verges.
Event organizer and Moor Meadows co-founder Donna Cox of Buckfastleigh said: “Wildflower meadows are among the most important wildlife habitats, as they support disproportionately high numbers of plant and animal species. Yet 97% of Britain’s wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s. Meadows have a fascinating history and are a wonderful wildlife spectacle in the present – but they are important for the future of both wildlife and people.”
The free talk on ‘Why meadows matter’ will include a Question and Answer session so attendees can quiz Stephen Moss about the wildlife to be found in meadows and the importance of wildflower-rich grasslands for reducing pollution in our waterways, storing carbon from the atmosphere, reversing the declines
‘Wildflower meadows are important for wildlife – and our history and culture’ STEPHEN MOSS
in pollinating insects, helping to improve people’s mental health and more.
Stephen Moss said: “Wildflower meadows have such a central importance not only for wildlife, but also in our history, literature and culture. They have all but disappeared in recent decades, but Moor Meadows is now helping to bring them back.”
In addition to the general Q&A session the free event will also include a conversation between Stephen Moss and Dartmoor-based RSPB Chairman Kevin Cox.
Stephen Moss is one of Britain’s leading nature writers, broadcasters and wildlife television producers. He was the original producer for Springwatch and is the author of many books and articles on British birds and wildlife.
He writes a monthly Birdwatch column for the Guardian, is lecturer in Travel and Nature Writing at Bath Spa University and is Vice-President of Somerset Wildlife Trust. Stephen is passionate about communicating the wonders of the natural world.
More Meadows is an umbrella name for the network of new meadows groups being established in different parts of Devon, all sharing information via the new Meadow Makers’ Forum. Establishment of the Forum has been made possible by a grant from the Devon Environment Foundation.
Moor Meadows Dartmoor is a community group established in 2015, whose aim is to help all involved in conserving, restoring and creating wildflower meadows, on any scale, in the landscape of Dartmoor.
Moor Meadows Dartmoor have set up the online Meadow Makers’ Forum to help with the formation of new groups across Devon.
▮ Open to everyone, the event is free but you must register places on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ why-meadows-matter-and-why-weneed-more-of-them-tickets-136191822407