Wildflower meadow

[teabag]

Hello,

I posted a thread last year about a wildflower meadow which is near me and that the landowner want to plough up.
It is permanant pasture and has not been sprayed or ploughed etc for at least the last 20 years.

I contacted the local wildlife trust who sent some one out to do a survey and it was eventually given SINC protection.

I just wondered if this gives it much protection as the landowner still wants to plough it at some point and there is also a possibility of development at some point in the future.
Natural England say the landowner needs permission to plough permanant pasture.
The land runs along a river which I have in the past seen kingfishers and some time ago water voles but not recently.
Any ideas as to what else can be done to protect this land. I am concened that the landowner may go ahead and plough it any way as they are of the mind that it is their land and they will do what they like with it.
I have started a new thread as not much responce from the old one.
Any ideas anyone please?

[animartco]

Hi Teabag. Looks as if you aren't getting much response this time either! I suggest try your local library for any botanist conservation groups locally, and get in touch with the person in charge and plead with them to come and do a species count.
Alternatively you could go and take pictures of any interesting looking plants there and send them here for ID. If something rare turns up then you'll be in business!

[teabag]

Thanks will do that, last year there were bee orchids and yellow flag iris. Barn owls have been seen there too.
Im not really up on all the rare stuff but I know ther is a site nearby which has the small blue butterfly and there are loads of butterflies in the feild

[Meta menardi]

As you have said that the site now has had a survey and is a SINC site, you have already done a good deal. SINC status usually follows quite strict criteria which vary from Local Authority to Local Authority. The low level of protection it provides is only at a level of planning, the species on the site get no protection apart from the usual that all species enjoy.

[teabag]

Thanks will be looking in to seeing if any one may be interested in coming to do a species count etc.

[Monkey Orchid]

Is the landowner involved in or signed up to any farm conservation schemes, such as the Environmental Stewardship Scheme? Or could they be persuaded to join? Maybe if they were given a financial incentive to maintain the land as permanent pasture, they'd be less eager to plough it up. Perhaps your local FWAG office might be helpful here. If at all possible, it would be better to work with the landowner rather than setting up a potential confrontation situation... Although I can appreciate that some landowners are very difficult to work with.

The SINC designation is good: although it's a non-statutory designation, it will give the site some degree of protection from development under local planning rules. Getting further designations/statutory protection (e.g. SSSI) would be difficult and in any case SSSI status does not guarantee that land will be well looked after.

My thought is that the best way to conserve this patch could be a combination of working with the landowner if at all possible, along with involvement of local conservation groups. Is there much public access onto/across the site (footpaths etc)? If there is, maybe organised visits and/or guided walks to view and monitor the wildlife would be a good way to build up local interest in and support for conserving this meadow. You've already been in touch with the local wildlife trust, perhaps you could also try contacting groups such as Butterfly Conservation and Plantlife, to see who might be interested in assisting with species surveys.

I don't know what the landowner's current management regime is, but perhaps they might be more amenable to pursuing a more wildlife-friendly strategy if some volunteer help was forthcoming with some of the management tasks (e.g. maintaining fencing, gates, stiles, water troughs etc; keeping an eye on livestock). I guess you will have to find out what motivates this individual and use that to try to get them 'on side'.

In the meantime, collecting whatever data you can on the species currently found on the site is a good way forward, whether that be from species counts, or perhaps photographs of the site and of individual species.

Good luck, and I look forward to hearing how this site develops.

[teabag]

Thanks for your reply. There aer no footpaths etc on the land and at the moment it is used for grazing a couple of ponies. I will be looking in to getting in touch with some other wildlife grops to see if they are interested in it.
Thanks again

[teabag]

Hello, a little update, the land is now a local wildlife site lws, the land is due to be ploughed this spring.
Ive contacted wildlife trust, butterfly conservation and natural england but my fear is that the landowner is going to plough it up anyway and suffer any consequences later. Thing is once its ploughed up its gone. Dont think I can do any thing else.
Its very sad.

[teabag]

It looks very much like this land will be ploughed, although there are EIA laws natural england say they cant be inforced, which to me seems very pointless, i have contacted the wildlife trust and butterfly conservation and now also plantlife. Looks as though nothing can be done. Very sad.

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by teabag

It looks very much like this land will be ploughed, although there are EIA laws natural england say they cant be inforced, which to me seems very pointless, i have contacted the wildlife trust and butterfly conservation and now also plantlife. Looks as though nothing can be done. Very sad.

I have been in this, the most frustrating of positions, when it seems no matter what you do, or who you contact, nothing can be done to preserve such a meadow; the last resort must be to plead with the landowner, try to show him/her what a wonderful natural habitat they have.

It is certainly a poor indictment of the political will in this country for our natural heritage. It seems that unless you can get 'something from it', it can't be worth preserving.
A very sorry state of affairs.
Dorts.