On Wednesday 7th August, we hosted our fifth and final summer evening meadow walk of the season at the magnificent Mowley Valley in North West Herefordshire.

The valley is currently managed as a large scale habitat mosaic consisting of species rich grasslands, semi-natural ancient woodland, scrapes and rough edges and all dissected by the River Arrow.

The focus of the walk was on invertebrates in grasslands and what can be done to support these under a hay meadow management regime. In Mowley they have begun leaving uncut strips or refuges which are rotated each year as well as wide rough edges along the woodland and riverbanks. These both provide shelter to invertebrates and mean that any late flowering plants growing within these strips continue to provide a source of late summer nectar.

The entire site is then aftermath grazed and the sheep will graze down the strips to help maintain the diverse plant communities.

We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to visit such a fantastic site and have such a stimulating discussion on wokodmeadow and mosaic habitat systems.

Many thanks to all who attended and we look forward now to our autumn events.