The grasslands here at Upton Country Park are managed for the benefit of both our visitors and wildlife.

97% of the UKs wildflower meadows have disappeared since the 1930s. The way we manage these areas is designed to restore a biodiverse wildflower meadow to the Country Park.

How?

We are doing this by cutting the vegetation just twice a year, to reduce the nutrient levels in the soil and encourage a nutrient-poor wildflower habitat.

The Spring cut inhibits the grass growth to encourage wildflowers to grow over the summer. The Autumn cut and removal of the cut material, after seed heads have dropped, takes away nutrients from the soil and leaves the wildflower seeds behind.

This is a long-term technique and will take a few years for the soil to adjust, eventually producing a wonderful display of flowers and reduce our need to cut.

We cut in fire breaks that act as pathways allowing the area to be freely roamed and minimising fire risk.

Benefits

By doing our part for the planet and creating a diverse natural habitat, we will encourage a greater diversity of pollinators and other invertebrates, which in turn will lead to greater species of birds and mammals in our Country Park.

We have already seen stoats on site for the first time in 10 years, and every common British bee species can be found here too.

Wildflower meadows, along with our hedgerows, also provide cover and shelter for amphibians like frogs and toads, and small mammals to move freely, help to store carbon, and retain water in the soil to control erosion and flooding.

Did you know? On a single day in summer, one acre of wildflower meadow can contain 3 million flowers, producing 1 kg of nectar sugar. That’s enough to support nearly 96,000 honey bees per day!

Source: WWF-UK | Why we need wildflowers