When managing a site it is important to make a record of the following details:
All this information is really useful in interpreting plant community changes and learning the elements that can be damaging or beneficial to species-richness. You can tell us about these details through our meadow map. Follow the link to your meadow on our Meadow Map and click on the Meadow Watch link.
Here is a video footage showing some of the meadow managers we have worked with.
Decisions about what management action to take at a site can be made by looking for key plant indicators, or by recognition of change in typical management activity. For example extensive summer floods may result in a missed or late hay cut, or sites may become too wet to sustain species-rich meadow communities. See below for a table of 'problem plants' and what environmental or management conditions they may indicate.
Plant | What does this indicate? | Possible causes | Possible solutions |
Soft rush |
Waterlogging Acidification Soil disturbance |
Silting up ditches and grips. Stock poaching in wet conditions |
Restore surface drainage Apply lime Avoid overgrazing |
Sharp-flowered rush |
Wet soil Low nutrient availability |
Silting up ditches and grips |
Improve surface drainage and consider addition of farmyard manure Cut before flood likely to drown shoots |
Greater pond-sedge |
Waterlogging Late or missed cuts resulting in a rank sward |
Silting up ditches and grips Late (after 15th July) or missed hay cuts, lack of management |
Restore surface drainage Cut early (mid June) |
Reed sweet-grass, reed canary grass | Ditch siltation and water overspill into meadow resulting in waterlogging | Silting up ditches and grips |
Maintain ditches, Cut twice (or at least once!) |
Slender tufted-sedge, lesser pond-sedge |
Ponding of low lying areas Consecutive wet summers |
Silting up ditches and grips |
Maintain surface drains Cut twice annually for three years (see control of invasive sedges case study) |
Common nettle | Eutrophication |
Late or missed hay cuts Flooding with nutrient-rich water |
Cut early (mid June) Cut twice annually (June and September) Maintain surface drains Work with agencies to reduce nutrient levels in wider catchment |
Marsh ragwort |
Waterlogging Soil disturbance |
Silting up ditches and grips Stock poaching in wet conditions |
Cut early (mid June) Avoid overgrazing Consider winter sheep grazing |
Hogweed |
Eutrophication Lowering of water level in the river or ditches |
Flooding with nutrient-rich water Late or missed hay cuts Alteration of river management Over abstraction |
Maintain surface drains Work with agencies to reduce nutrient levels in wider catchment Cut early (mid June) Cut twice annually (June and September)
|
Curled dock |
Waterlogging Eutrophication
|
Silting up ditches and grips Late or missed hay cuts |
Restore surface drainage Cut early (mid June)
|
Spear thistle, creeping thistle |
Eutrophication Soil disturbance |
Late or missed hay cuts Stock poaching in wet conditions
|
Cut early (mid June) Avoid overgrazing |
Creeping buttercup, hard rush | Compaction resulting in waterlogging | Poor timing of grazing and vehicle access | Avoid vehicle access in wet conditions; avoid grazing when soil too wet to support animals |
False oat-grass, creeping thistle | Accumulation of ditch spoil above the normal field level | Insensitive ditching works | Spread ditch spoil |
Tussocks of course grasses (e.g. false oat-grass, cock's-foot, tufted hair-grass, Yorkshire fog) |
Late or missed cuts Lack of grazing |
Late or missed hay cuts Accumulation of litter through under grazing |
Cut early (mid June) Cut twice annually (June and September) Temporary fencing to keep animals in restricted areas Revise stocking densities/reinstate aftermath grazing |
A rich array of species have adapted to the cycle of hay cutting, aftermath grazing and periodic inumdation. Many of these species benefit from the margins and areas of transition between one vegetation type and another, and management requirements vary. It is important to remember that hisoric management at a site will have shaped the range of taxa, and this pattern should be maintained where known. Adapting management to the needs of a particular species is not advisable as there will be impact on other interest features, Below is a table which outlines management approaches that be used for the benefit of different species groups.
Management options | Species group | Objective |
Carry out a breeding-bird survey in spring | Birds | Check if there are any ground-nesting birds using the site and identify locations |
Consider a staggered cutting pattern | Birds, invertebrates, mammals | Try to avoid areas where there are nests until young have fledged. Allow some areas to be cut later on an annual rotation to allow small mammals to escape and to provide invertebrate habitat for longer |
Rotate staggered cutting | Birds, invertebrates | When there are breeding birds nesting, avoid nest sites, and avoid cutting the same areas at the same time year on year |
OR consider cutting in a spiral pattern from the inside out if corncrake or curlew are present | Birds, invertebrates, mammals | This would enable fledgling birds, invertebrates and small mammals to escape the machinery |
Maintain margins and boundaries | Invertebrates | Irregularly cut areas contribute towards an overall habitat diversity in the landscape, which will benefit invertebrates |
Leave uncut margins and fringes of vegetation alongside watercourses on a rotational basis | Invertebrates mammals | Allow some margins to be left uncut each year and rotate uncut margins between years |
Consider type of livestock | Invertebrates | Beetle abundance was found to be higher in cattle-grazed swards than those grazed by sheep during an aftermath-grazing study (Woodcock et al. 2006) |
Managing a meadow in an urban environment can be a challenge for all sorts of reasons. We put together an article on this issue in the July 2011 newsletter which included some case studies from managers around the country. The longer versions of the case studies are found below:
Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows (York)