Our agricultural lowlands were once full of wildflower-rich meadows and pastures, the result of centuries of established farming practice. Grazed heathland with boggy pools existed on the margins and supported a rich variety of animal and plant life. Various orchids were widespread, and Adder's tongue fern was common on unploughed pasture. Today, species-rich lowland meadow and pasture and lowland heath are an extremely rare and fragmented habitat.
By 1984 we had lost 97% of this wildflower rich grassland, and losses continued in the 1990s, in many counties at rates up to 10% per annum. In Durham there is no comprehensive picture, but anecdotal evidence suggests those losses continue today.
Agricultural practices encouraged by government agricultural policies since the 2nd World War have seen traditionally managed meadows, pastures and heathland destroyed. These habitats have been ploughed up and reseeded with more productive grasses or have been degraded through regular application of fertilisers or slurried manure or overgrazed due to high stocking densities. In Durham today, many remaining sites are being lost through sheer neglect or inappropriate management allowing scrub to establish and sensitive wildflowers and plants to disappear.
Today we face two enormous challenges. Firstly we need to hang on to the last remaining fragments of this beautiful and valuable resource, and secondly we need to start the process of restoration as part of a more extensive and sustainable agricultural environment.
Both these challenges are being met by a new project developed by the Durham Biodiversity Partnership. The Coalfields and Lowlands project involves partners in Gateshead, Darlington, Wear Valley , Derwentside, Sedgefield and the City of Durham and is being managed by the Durham Wildlife Trust.
Initially funded for two years by Natural England's Countdown 2010 fund and SITA's Enriching Nature Fund, the project will save a number of currently neglected grassland and heathland sites by providing fencing and water to allow grazing, and will be starting to restore a number of other sites through reseeding and taking a hay crop.
As well as the practical work on sites, a new project officer will resurvey important sites with nature conservation designations, and talk to landowners about their management, as well as co-ordinating further survey work on all sites to help us build a better picture of this threatened wildlife resource.
