The Meadow Makers' Network Forum

We've just had a paper published which I think several people on this forum might be interested in. You can find it here:
https://www.academia.edu/2997-6006/1/2/ ... EnvSci6238
It is Open Access so you should be able to get to it without any account or cost.

Jon Valters wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:47 pm Hi Alice,
I've signed the petition. Like Donna I wondered if your local wildlife trust was helping you? Is it possible the grassland could be defined as ancient? As if so I think an Environmental Impact Assessment is required for a

Thanks Jon, I'll pass on your suggestions.

Thank you Lisa, that's a really good point. Worth following up!

Close to where my stepmother lives is a beautiful meadow where skylarks nest, and many species have their homes: butterflies, bats, green winged orchid and so many more. Roots allotments plans to turn this space into allotment plots. It would really help if lots of people sign the petition opposing ...

Thank you, Alice. Your dissertation sounds very interesting. I'd love to hear about it. Your situation is a wonderful example of how simplistic 'rules' on how things should be done cannot fit every situation! Thank you for showing an interest in my dissertation. In it was trying to understand how '...

Thank you for this identification. It's helped solve a puzzle for me - a load of caterpillars munching their way through all the leaves on our little silver birch: they are Birch Sawfly larvae. Of course they weren't in my butterflies/moths book!

My thoughts are that it is clear you know your piece of land very well, and you should go with your gut instinct. It is good to keep the ground covered over the winter, specially if there is some 'peaty' soil - that needs protecting to stop it degrading and releasing its carbon into the atmosphere. ...

I thought maybe Heath Fritillary because the caterpillar has similar colours, but in your pictures I don't see the tufts that are evident in the picture in my insect book. If it is one of those there must be some cow wheat around. The only other one that looks similar is the mullein moth, but the he...

As @newinvention suggests eventually I went for a compromise. The farmer and I walked round the field and we chose about a fifth of it with the smallest anthills. He took his big tractor in and flattened that area. He will come again in the autumn to mow the flattened area. It was quite traumatic wa...

Thank you Jane, that sounds like a sensible suggestion, but actually this was tried a few years ago by Surrey Wildlife Trust, using electric fencing. Inevitably the cattle got out from time to time and because no one was living on site and SWT are miles away, they found it impossible to keep dashing...