Our appeal for more meadows

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Donna Cox
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Our appeal for more meadows

Post by Donna Cox »

We want more meadows. But to do that, we need to support and encourage more meadow makers. Our ambition is to grow the Meadow-Makers’ Network across the south-west so that we can encourage more people to create meadows and to manage land for nature.

Within living memory, the countryside used to be full of colour and teaming with life. Meadows were a part of our landscape and with them came the birds, bees and butterflies that thrived in them.

Not anymore.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, ranking 189th of 218 countries assessed for biodiversity intactness. We have lost 97 per cent of our species-rich meadows in the last seventy years.

Moor Meadows Dartmoor is thriving – we have over 2,000 members and supporters and there’s an amazing 1,679 acres of meadows, of every scale, on our Meadows Map. We know there are others who want to set up local community meadows groups, but who lack the support and the knowledge to get started.

We want to help them.

Already new groups are emerging – West Devon Meadows, North Devon Biosphere Group, Bath and Bristol Meadows and Cornwall Meadows.

Being able to join a local network has many advantages. It limits travel to attend workshops or Open Meadows events. Seed can be exchanged locally. Contractor information can be shared. Local talks can be organised.

We want to continue to support these groups and help even more get going. We’ve already started with this Forum, a platform for sharing knowledge and information. We've also run a series of informative webinars, from how to create a meadow to conservation grazing. This was all made possible thanks to a £5,000 grant from the Devon Environment Foundation.

But there’s more to do. We've employed Orlando Rutter for two days a week for six months to help grow the network. Orlando has much experience engaging with communities as he was previously Head of Outreach and Understanding at Dartmoor National Park Authority.

Orlando is working on helping people and communities work together to make a difference for nature across the whole of the south-west.

As a community group, that’s free to join, we have no source of income other from running our events.

We are asking members and supporters if they’d like to contribute so we can do more and extend the project for longer – please can you help by donating £5, £10 or £20 or whatever you can afford? Our target is to raise £6,000 which will help us continue whilst we seek other sources of funding.

Whatever your gift, your support is greatly appreciated. It will help spread the message of the importance of meadows as a vitally important habitat, for wildlife and for people.

You can donate here (by Paypal) https://moormeadows.org.uk/donate/. If you would prefer to pay by BACS or cheque, or you have any questions, please email our treasurer David Crook: davidjcrook@... and he will be happy to provide the relevant details.

Thank you! From the Moor Meadows steering group - Donna, David, Steve, Jackie & Nicky