Northern Ireland's traditional flower-rich meadows (hay meadows/semi-natural grasslands) are unique because of our geography, climate and traditional management practices. They are an integral part of our cultural and natural heritage. Our meadows support more flowering plants than any other Northern Ireland habitat type. Because of the diversity of flowering plants they in turn support an array of pollinating insects including bees, butterflies and moths. True hay meadows have now largely disappeared because of major changes in agricultural practices but road verges and amenity open space … [Read more...] about Traditional flower-rich meadows
The latest
Traditional flower-rich meadows
Don’t Mow, Let It Grow developed
Don’t Mow, Let It Grow developed from a small Envision road verge pilot project in 2012/13 which looked at four verges in the Garvagh area. The selected verges were surveyed the plants recorded. The results were very impressive with verges containing 30 plus meadow plant species, and receiving good public support. This led to upscaling the pilot to a super Council wide project Don’t Mow Let It Grow. The project partners were able to secure a development grant for funding from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in 2015 to develop this pilot project and submit a delivery phase application. … [Read more...] about Don’t Mow, Let It Grow developed
Donna Rainey – Project photography, site guardian, site survey, events, website blogger and Facebooker
Donna earns her living as a nurse but her real passion is to help conserve our natural environment and engage more people to understand and value their natural environment. Donna is a keen amateur naturalist and in recent years has developed her skills as moth recorder, participating in the garden moth recording scheme, she also carries out butterfly and bumblebee transects in some of our local nature reserves. And if that isn’t enough, she is an avid litter picker helping to keep our countryside litter free. … [Read more...] about Donna Rainey – Project photography, site guardian, site survey, events, website blogger and Facebooker
Alan Sturgeon – Project photographer & site guardian
Alan is a retired primary school teacher with a background in Environmental Studies. He has had a keen interest in the natural environment and the great outdoors since early childhood. Alan is a keen amateur photographer, which was fuelled by the advent of digital photography and over the last 12 years he has built up a substantial archive of images. His most recent focus has been on the flora and fauna in a variety of habitats within the Causeway Coast and Glens, council area. While he was still teaching Alan was seconded to the Western Education and Library Board for 2 years, (1994 to … [Read more...] about Alan Sturgeon – Project photographer & site guardian
