Meadows are blooming lovely for Seeding Change project
Last updated 09:43, Friday, 04 July 2008
THE beauty and diversity of Northumberland’s wildlife has been introduced to a new generation under a project called Seeding Change, run by Northumberland National Park.
Tynedale first school children discovered the way hay meadows used to be when their grandparents were young when they visited the fields around Greenhaugh, in the national park.
Taking part in a range of activities designed to teach them about biodiversity for farming, 230 children learned about the importance of wildflowers and insects to the countryside.
Flower-rich meadows are a familiar, if increasingly rare, sight in Northern England, providing a blaze of colour in summer and, more importantly, a haven for wildlife.
There can be as many as 30 plant species per square metre, including rarities like wood cranesbill and yellow rattle.
Northumberland National Park has some of the finest meadows in Europe.
The pupils were given presentations by speakers from the park, explaining the nature of upland hay meadows, their relative scarcity worldwide, and their importance to flora and fauna in Britain.
The children, from schools including Greenhaugh, Kielder, West Woodburn, Bellingham, Wark, Humshaugh, Newbrough and Otterburn, were then taught to look more closely at wildflowers and their symbiotic relationship with insects.
Seeding Change project officer Shaun Hackett said:“Helping children understand through experience about the teeming life in traditional hay meadows, and how the health of this habitat affects a whole range of creatures along the food chain and into our own food production, is the best way to protect them for future generations.”
Although some farmers may feel this more natural method of farming limits the amount of hay being grown, many are now behind the idea.
The fodder gleaned from flower-filled meadows contains a broader range of nutrients than purely grass feed, benefitting the livestock.
Fields in which a monoculture of plants is grown become leached of essential minerals, meaning they require fertiliser in the future.
Government subsidies for set-aside farming have helped in changing attitudes, although Frances Whitehead from Northumberland National Park also believes farmers get pleasure from it.
“You’d have to be very hard-hearted not to enjoy having beautiful fields, alive with wildlife,” she said.
Members of the public are encouraged to indulge in a country walk amongst the meadows, too.
Although many of the verges in the North Tyne valley are still full of colour in August and September, June and July are the best times of year to look out for the flowers.
Some of the national park's finest meadows can be seen from the gated road between Lanehead and Falstone.
Other examples are Greenhaugh and Bought-hill Mill meadows, either side of the Tarset Burn, seen from a footpath leading from Greenhaugh.
