Partner Article

Sponsors celebrate the growth of pioneering North Yorkshire wood

A special summer drinks party was held at Three Hagges Wood Meadow, between Escrick and Riccall in North Yorkshire, for the sponsors of the wood and their friends to see the meadow in full bloom. The community wood and meadow is the brainchild of Rosalind Forbes Adam of Skipwith Hall, near Selby.

Here Rosalind explains the story of the wood:

In 2012 we chose the wood-meadow model to try and transform our ‘conventional’ 25 acre barley field site into one of the most diverse of ecosystems in the northern temperate world. We have been recording the methodology we used, and will share this with other conservation organisations. Our ultimate aim as a Charity is to see a wood-meadow in every parish, so that such diversity will be accessible to all on their doorstep, for education, health and wellbeing.

By May of 2013, the site had been sown with two (wet and dry) lowland mixes of grasses and in December of that year 10,000 native trees and shrubs of 28 species were planted into the meadow, in 12 copses (destined for coppice with standards management). We have undertaken professional botanical, entomological, bird and mammal surveys in each subsequent year.

From a ‘biodiversity blank canvas’, within three years, we now have over 200 species of meadow flowers and grasses, each of which is a host to pollinating and other insects. This has been achieved by enhancing the meadow with native meadow flowers collected, sown and planted by our volunteers, along with those species that have come in of their own accord. Despite the high soil fertility the meadow flora and its associate insect populations are thriving. Our detailed attention to seed selection is one of the keys to this.

We have achieved a remarkable count of pollinators: over 20 species of butterfly, 50 of moths, all 9 common species of bumblebee, as well as 70 other species of lesser known pollinating species, including solitary bees and hoverflies, as well as dragonflies and damselflies at the pond, and many of these are breeding populations. The meadow hosts barn owls, kestrels, buzzards and herons, and in summer, the swallows are plentiful – gathering a shimmer of invertebrates at the meadow surface. You can see what we have here: http://threehaggeswoodmeadow.org.uk/resources/ .

Today there are abundant bumble and solitary bees - for whom we have just completed a magnificent bee hotel (palace). June and July are the peak flowering months, and the time when the majority of butterflies begin to appear. We¹ve recorded 20 species, including Meadow Browns, Common Blue, Small Copper. The trees are as yet in their infancy - too young to flower or to provide nest sites for birds - but they¹re inching skyward month by month.

Imagine – if we can achieve this within three years – how much more in ten, twenty, thirty? Imagine such ecosystems on brownfield sites, on derelict urban patches, on road verges, beside cycle tracks, in schools grounds, on corners and patches of agricultural land, in gardens. What we have here are the tools to reverse the losses of diversity in our lifetimes, to create a tapestry and mosaic of interconnected diversity hot spots across the country, and a vast educational resource on the doorstep of all – children, their parents and grandparents. They will not care for what they do not know.

Further details of how you could support us can be found here http://www.haggewoodstrust.org.uk/support-us/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .