News

Glorious Grasslands

PAA is supporting the South West Peak Landscape Partnership’s Glorious Grasslands project, with funding in 2017. Located in the South West Peak District, the Glorious Grasslands project is doing well. Since 2017, over 250ha of grasslands have been surveyed and new wonderful hay meadows and flower-rich grasslands have been found. Internationally and nationally important waxcap sites have been discovered and base-line monitoring carried out. Around 20ha of grasslands have started to be restored with another 30ha identified and ready for restoration in the next two years. After years of wildflower losses along with their companion insects and birds, it is wonderful to report some successes.

This is just one of the South West Peak Landscape Partnership programme projects, led by the Peak District National Park Authority and funded largely by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Other projects including work on creating safe havens for white-clawed crayfish and natural flood management to reduce flood risks in towns like Congleton. A research project is looking at soils, invertebrates, compaction and rush management to explore why curlew numbers are declining. Many volunteers are involved in all the different projects, from surveyors of barns and cultural heritage features, to those growing plants, or helping with children activities. Penny has even adopted a milepost – gives her something to do to keep it clean!

For more information go to www.southwestpeak.co.uk/