Carmarthenshire Meadows Project

Do you want to manage your land to encourage wildlife?

Are you unsure how to do it?

Do you lack the livestock or equipment to help you?

Ivy Denham is a regular contributor to Natur Cymru, writing about the practicalities of habitat restoration, and has news of a the launch of a new Carmarthenshire Meadows Project.

Where:  The National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne, SA32 8HN
When: Saturday 28th March from 11am to 1pm.

Entry to the meeting is free if you give your contact details beforehand to Carmarthenshire’s Biodiversity Officer Isabel Macho at IMacho@carmarthenshire.gov.uk or ring 01558 825390

The project aims to inspire the creation of a county-wide community that supports each other to improve the diversity of plants, fungi and animals on meadows, large or small, across Carmarthenshire.

This has been inspired by the highly successful Monmouthshire Meadows Group, a collection of 80 field owners, who over the past 10 years have greatly improved the quality of over 500 acres of Monmouthshire grassland. They do this by sharing knowledge, farm equipment and livestock – have a look at their  website www.monmouthshiremeadows.org.uk

One of the delights of Carmarthenshire is its rolling landscape of beautiful meadows. But look closely and you’ll struggle to find a field with a rich diversity of wildflowers. Like much of the UK where 98% of flower-rich meadows have been lost in the past century, Carmarthenshire’s farmers have had to intensify their farming methods to make a living, and consequently, our ‘traditional’ wildflower-rich meadows have been reduced to isolated islands amongst a sea of green grass dominated fields.

The Botanic Garden manages Waun Las National Nature Reserve on which a few meadows have been restored to much of their former splendour. Here, you can now find fields full of orchids, caraway, bees, butterflies and colourful fungi, the result of careful grazing and strategically timed hay cutting.

So it’s an appropriate place to come and find out what you might be able to do with your field. You won’t hear about any new funding at this meeting – there isn’t any! But you might be inspired to work with others across the county to help restore the floral and faunal splendour of your own patch of Welsh countryside.

There’ll be short talks about meadows and a Carmarthenshire perspective, a chance to ask questions and make suggestions plus an invitation to have a go at using a scythe and to meet Waun Las’ farmer and his Welsh black cattle.

We look forward to meeting you.

Members of the Carmarthenshire Biodiversity Partnership