£65k farm project to plant hay meadows announced
BBCA £65,000 project to plant hay meadows on farmland this summer has been announced.
The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) and Cumbria Wildlife Trust are working on the plan to support "rare and threatened" plants that provide "vital nectar sources" for pollinators like bumblebees, hoverflies, and butterflies.
Sites across the Lake District have already been identified and farmers will work with the organisations in the next three months to sow and transplant seeds from other sites, the LDNPA said.
Authority farming officer Claire Foster said: "As the Lake District faces increasing challenges, the protection of species-rich grassland is more important than ever."
'Enrich the grasslands'
"These habitats support nature, traditional farming systems, store carbon, improve soil and livestock health, and support pollinators, enhancing the landscape that underpins our food systems," she added.
The LDNPA said the Lake District had been shaped by hundreds of years of low intensity farming, made up of a combination of grazing and hay-making.
It means such grassland has never been heavily fertilised or reseeded, making it "one of the rarest" yet most biodiverse grasslands in the UK, the authority said.
Tanya St Pierre, grassland and pollinator team leader at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: "Providing farmers and landowners with the opportunity to enrich their grasslands with rare and declining native plants, is a great step forward towards helping safeguard their future in Cumbria."
The project is funded by BMW UK's Recharge in Nature project, a partnership secured by National Parks Partnerships.