With a bit of welcome rain, the meadow plants will all soon start shooting up and bursting into flower, meaning now is the time to start thinking about surveying. Irrespective of whether you already have a well-established meadow, have recently carried out restoration works or hope to carry out restoration works in the near future, it is good practice to survey on an annual basis. This will enable you to see changes over time and gather vital data that will help guide management decisions going forward. You can find lots of useful information and helpful resources on the ‘surveying an monitoring’ page of our website including; how to carry out a rapid monitoring assessment, and a meadow plant ID sheet.

Also this month find out how to book onto our Bumblebee ID course being held on June 14th as well as lots of other upcoming events. We encourage you to get involved with Plantlife’s No Mow May and Every Flower Counts campaigns and you can catch up on a few of the activities we have been up to over the past month.

Upcoming events:

Tuesday 14th June 9.30 for 10.00am – 13.00pm – Bumblebee ID Training led by Dr Richard Comont at Adhisthana, Coddington, HR8 1JL

On Tuesday 14th June we will be running a Bumblebee ID day at Adhisthana Court in Coddington led by Dr Richard Comont of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and supported by WWF-UK who will be bringing a film crew along to capture some of the action. Full details of what you need to bring and how to book can be found on our website. Bookingswill open on 1st June and be taken on a first come, first served basis. Please let us know when you book where you will be carrying out your bumblebee monitoring and/ or if you would be happy to help other landowners in your area to also set up BeeWalks.

Tuesday 17th May 1pm – No Mow May – Introducing the Most Common Plants
in Every Flower Counts with Sarah Shuttleworth

A webinar training session being run by Plantlife covering how to ID common grassland flowers. Sign up to this here.

There is also a second webinar on the 18th May at 12:30pm which covers rarer grassland flowers.

Saturday 21st May 11am – Workshop on Grazing and Soil Health at the RWAS Smallholding and Countryside Festival

If you are planning on attending the Smallholding and Countryside Festival at the RWAS on Saturday 21st May make sure to check out this talk in the Lantra building to find out about a farmer-led project involving Wye Valley farmers that is exploring the effects of different grazing regimes on soil carbon, nitrogen and biodiversity and what farmers think about soil health. To find out more details and to book a place on the workshop (deadline 18th May) email Jane Ricketts Hein (jrickettshein@gmail.com)

Catch up:

Nicole Masters interview on Farmerama: The Regen Platform

Episode #73 of Famerama Radio featured Nicole Masters, independent agroecologist, systems thinker and educator. Nicole spoke about the power of digging a hole, the inspiration behind the Regen Indicators, and how the Soilmentor Regen Platform can support a regenerative transition. Listen again here.

Get Involved:

2022 Herefordshire Summer Grassland Competition

If you want to put your wonderful species rich grasslands forward for the Hereford Grassland Society, Summer Grassland Competition you can request an entry form by emailing agricultural.secretaries@sunderlands.co.uk. The closing date to enter the competition is Tuesday 17th May.

No Mow May and Every Flower Counts survey

This May put your lawnmower away and join Plantlife’s No Mow May campaign where they are encouraging everyone to let the wildflowers in their lawns bloom, to support wild pollinators. Then from 21st May you can join the nationwide Every Flower Counts survey to get a personal nectar score for your lawn. Find out more about both these initiatives here.

• A reminder that the Environmental Stewardship and Countryside Stewardship claims deadline is Monday 16th May
• Get in touch to book in a summer species survey if you have an area of already species rich grassland which you would like to get onto the Priority Habitats Inventory to be able to access Countryside Stewardship option GS6: Management of species-rich grassland next year.
• Many of you are waiting to hear news of the Local Nature Recovery element of the new ELMs scheme. You can get updates on this on the through the Gov.UK website and by signing up to the Future Farming Blog.