Author: h9wpadmin

The home we moved into about 10 years ago , in the South Downs National Park came with an ‘unimproved’ meadow . Later the family of the previous owners sent us some documentation showing that the meadow had a local designation – at that time it was called a SNCI , a Site of Nature Conservation Importance. More recently the designation has been renamed to Local Wildlife Site (LWS) , see https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/local-wildlife-sites. They say that “these non-statutory LWS sites are sites with ‘substantive nature conservation value’. They are defined areas, identified and selected for their nature conservation value, based on important, distinctive and threatened habitats and species with a national, region. Found on both public and private land, LWSs vary in size and shape from small ponds and copses and linear features such as hedgerows, road verges and water courses to much larger areas of habitat such as ancient woodlands, heaths, wetlands and grassland. They support both locally and nationally threatened wildlife, and many sites will contain habitats and species that are priorities under the county or UK Biodiversity Action Plans (BAP). Collectively they play a critical role in the conservation of the UK’s natural heritage by providing essential wildlife refuges in their own right and by acting as stepping stones, corridors and buffer zones to link and protect other site networks and the open spaces of our towns and countryside. . . LWSs can be amongst the best sites for biodiversity. It is essential, therefore, that the different status assigned to LWSs should not lessen the perception of their importance and the vital role they play in conserving our natural heritage.“

The meadow is noteworthy because of its biodiversity and is one of 3% of such meadows which remain , the rest having been given over to agriculture or other development. We are now in a project with the South Downs Authority for the meadow to become a donor meadow: the hay will be spread on other meadows to encourage their biodiversity.
The first species survey we had done is shown below . We’ve just had another survey but the results are not in yet.

	Previous Species list
1	Agrimony	Agrimonia eupatoria
2	Bent grass	Agrostis sp
3	Birds Foot Trefoil -Greater	Lotus pedunculatus
4	Birds Foot Trefoil -Lesser	Lotus corniculatus
5	Bramble	Rubus fructicosus agg
6	Buttercup -Creeping	Ranunculus repens
7	Buttercup -Meadow	Ranunculus acris
8	Cleavers (Goosegrass)	Galium aparine
9	Cocksfoot	Dactylis glomerata
10	Common Field Mousear	Cerastium fontanum
11	Common Knapweed	Centaurea nigra
12	Common Sorrel	Rumex acetosa
13	Cuckoo Pint	Arum maculatum
14	Dandelion	Taraxacum officinalis agg
15	Devil’s-bit Scabious	Succisa pratensis
16	Dewberry	Rubus caesius
17	Dock -Broadleaved	Rumex obtusifolius
18	Dock -Wood	Rumex sanguineus
19	Dog Rose	Rosa canina agg
20	False Oatgrass	Arrhenatherum elatius
21	Fescue sp (Meadow)	Festuca sp (pratensis?)
22	Field Forget-me-not	Myosotis arvensis
23	Fleabane -Common	Pulicaria dysenterica
24	Goat’s-beard	Tragopogon pratensis
25	Great Willowherb	Epilobium hirsutum
26	Ground Ivy	Glechoma hederacea
27	Hard Rush	Juncus inflexus
28	Hedge Bindweed	Calystegia sepium
29	Hedge Parsley	Torilis japonica
30	Hedge Woundwort	Stachys sylvatica
31	Herb Robert	Geranium robertianum
32	Hogweed	Heracleum sphondylium
33	Iris sp	Iris (foetidissima?)
34	Ivy	Hedera helix
35	Lady’s Bedstraw	Galium verum
36	Large-leaved Timothy	Phleum pratensis
37	Lesser Burdock	Arctium minor
38	Lesser Stitchwort	Stellaria graminea
39	Meadow Barley	Hordeum secalinum
40	Meadow Vetchling	Lathyrus pratensis
41	Meadow-grass sp	Poa sp
42	Meadowsweet	Filipendula ulmaria
43	Pepper Saxifrage	Silaum silaus
44	Prickly Sow-Thistle	Sonchus asper
45	Ragwort -Common	Senecio vulgaris
46	Ragwort -Hoary	Senecio erucifolius
47	Red Clover	Trifolium pratense
48	Ribwort Plantain	Plantago lanceolata
49	Self-heal	Prunella vulgaris
50	Silverweed	Potentilla anserina
51	Square St Johns Wort	Hypericum tetrapterum
52	Stinging Nettle	Urtica dioica
53	Sweet Vernal Grass	Anthoxanthum odorata
54	Thistle -Creeping	Cirsium arvense
55	Thistle -Marsh	Cirsium palustre
56	Thistle -Spear	Cirsium vulgare
57	Trailing Tormentil (or Hybrid Cinquefoil?)	Potentilla anglica OR Potentilla x mixta
58	Tufted Hair Grass	Deschampsia ceaspitosa
59	Tufted Vetch	Vicia cracca
60	Water Mint	Mentha aquatica
61	Water Pepper	Persicaria hydropiper
62	White Clover	Trifolium repens
63	Wood Avens	Geum urbanum
64	Woody Nightshade	Solanum dulcamara
65	Yarrow	Achillea millefolium
66	Yorkshire Fog	Holcus lanatus

Round the garden , sycamores pop up like weeds and even a visitor from Natural England said we should do something about them. I decided to top three that were shading where we didn’t want shade. They weren’t so big , only six inches or so in diameter. So project 4 which then turned into project 4++.