Who
A new team of innovators are creating wildflower-rich habitat to help fight the climate and environment emergency and trailblazer profitable ways for farmers to manage their land.
A partnership between Wildflower Collective CIC, Cornwall National Landscape, Rosuick Organic farm, and Cornwall Council Nature Recovery team. As well as many charities, Trusts and private land owners and farmers.
Funded by FiPL – Farming in Protected Landscapes fund
Why
Wildflower meadows are essential to help nature thrive and to fight against climate change.
Meadows can harbour more plant species than tropical rainforests over small areas and capture and store carbon.
However, we have lost 97% of our wildflower meadows in living memory. And this is one of the reasons why we have seen declines in farmland birds and pollinators like butterflies and bees.
Species-rich and diverse pastures for hay, silage and grazing are essential for healthy livestock and nutrient-rich beef, lamb and dairy.
What
To help fight the climate and environment emergency, Dr Grace Twiston-Davies (Wildflower Collective and University of Exeter) has created a novel wildflower meadow ‘dating agency’ – Meadow Match to help find and enhance the wildflower meadows we still have and to create more of these important habitats.
Wildflower Collective has teamed up with fellow forward thinkers – Cornwall National Landscape, Rosuick Organic Farm and Cornwall Councils Nature Recovery team. This new team aims to create 90 ha of essential wildflower-rich habitat in the next 2 years.
The aims of this Meadow Match project are to:
- Create 30 ha of new species-rich grassland with locally sourced seed this year (2023)
- Pipeline another 60 ha for next year (2024)
Our Meadow Match project is unique because – 1) we use an innovative Meadow Match database to 2) help create grasslands that are multi-purpose.
We are creating meadows that are target-
- Climate – species rich permanent grassland to store and lock in carbon to help mitigate climate change.
- Biodiversity – highly species-rich grasslands to support nature recovery.
- Landscape character – using species and mixes characteristic of the local area.
- Productivity – provide productive grazing and hay sources for farmers and profitable diversification opportunities.
To hit all four targets is a challenge! – Many grassland restoration projects usually cover the first 2 targets – Climate and Biodiversity. But to enhance the landscape of the AONB and support local farmers, targets 3 and 4 – landscape character and productive are as important.
The core of the project is our innovative Meadow Match database and our state of the art ‘Meadow Hub’.
Working behind the scenes is the innovative – Meadow Match database- a ‘dating agency’ for wildflower meadows, match-making ‘donor’ and ‘receptor’ sites of local wildflower seed and hay. What started as a project at the University of Exeter is now a fully-fledged not-for-profit organisation and has already helped to create 58 ha of wildflower rich habitat across Cornwall, Devon and the Isles of Scilly.
Key to the success of our multi-purpose meadows is our state of the art ‘Meadow Hub’ at Rosuick Organic farm on the Lizard designed to clean, sort and store seed and to share equipment and expertise with other meadow makers across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Rosuick farm has already designed and piloted bespoke machinery designed by Dave Oates, director at Rosucik Organic farm (funded by FiPL) to help harvest key sites across Cornwall and is instrumental in creating new productive grassland seed mixes that help support farmer livelihoods.
Novel to the project is also our ‘mix and match’ method – where we work with local botanical recorders and volunteers to surveys donor and receptor sites to help us decide when and where to harvest depending on target species. We harvest seed from multiple donors to create a seed mix that helps us reach our four Climate, Nature, Landscape character and Productivity targets.
Where
Cornwall, SW England. Focussing on, Cornwall AONB which covers 1/3 of Cornwall and ¾ of that is farmland, the majority being pasture – here we can make a massive difference by focussing on theses habitats and creating grasslands that are productive and profitable for farmers working and living in the protected landscape.
Meadow Match currently covers Cornwall, Devon and Isles of silly, this current project works across 4 iconic Cornwall National Landscape sections –
- South Coast Western – including the Lizard peninsula, the most southerly point of mainland UK.
- West Penwith – the SW of Cornwall where Lands End is.
- South Coast Central – to the East of the capital city Truro.
- And Bodmin Moor in the centre of Cornwall.
Working in collaboration with the National Trust, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, local farmers, landowners and community conservation groups – Wildlife Groundswell on the Lizard, Penwith Wildlife Recorders, Wild Roseland, 3 Bays Wildlife group and Bosavern Community Farm.
When
Creating 30 ha of new grassland habitat and a Meadow Hub between autumn 2023 and spring 2024.
Pipeline 60 ha of new sites for summer and autumn 2024.
This project wouldn’t have been possible without Cornwall National Landscape and the FiPL fund.
Partners
Dr Grace Twiston-Davies, Director of Wildflower Collective and Affiliate at the University of Exeter
info@wildflowercollective.org.uk
Sean O’Hea, FiPL Farm Engagement Project Officer, Cornwall National Landscape
Dave Oates, Director, Rosuick Organic Farm
James Ruddick, Project Officer, Cornwall Council Nature Recovery Team