Talk delivered by Tanya St Pierre

The Hay Time project, a partnership between the YDNPA and Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust, began in 2006 with the aim of conserving, enhancing and restoring meadows throughout the Yorkshire Dales. The Meadow Links work, focused on upland meadows, forms part of that project. The upland meadows of the Dales, which form an iconic element of the landscape, are home to one of the rarest grasslands in the UK. Termed MG3 grasslands, these occur only in the Pennine chain and are classified as a priority habitat in the national Biodiversity Action Plan. These meadows are species-rich as a result of longterm traditional management, involving spring grazing followed by the removal of stock for the summer, a single hay cut, and then autumn grazing. There can be as many as 40 to 50 different species in a square metre of meadow, and overall these grasslands support around 150 species of wild flower as well as numerous birds, invertebrates and mammals.

In order to restore and enhance upland meadows, seed is used from existing traditional meadows to add key functional species, such as yellow rattle, meadow buttercup and red clover. Sites are targeted in order to attempt to buffer the existing species-rich grasslands and to link networks of traditional meadows, thereby allowing the exchange of flora and fauna between sites. In
addition, the Meadow Links work supports a number of community projects in order to help local groups develop or restore hay meadows.

Hay meadows are a vital habitat for bumblebees and the project has aimed to explore whether its restoration work has an impact on the abundance and diversity of the bumblebee population. The team has recorded 11 different species with the most frequently visited flowers being red and white clovers and yellow rattle. Encouragingly, while meadows farmed using modern methods
are visited least by bees, comparably high numbers are to be found in both restored and existing traditional meadows.

Further information can be found at: ydmt.org/meadow-links
Tanya St Pierre is Hay Time Officer, Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust.