Plans for a new wood meadow are growing into fruition after the idea was put forward by a member of the public.
It’s being called West Nooks Wood Meadow and is located just off Landing Lane by the River Foss in Haxby.
Alan Robertshaw put the idea forward and regularly walks his dog on the land. He said: “It just struck me that it would be a nice area, with all the publicity these days about encouraging pollinators and so on, it’s all under trees and by the river, and potentially, you know, could encourage a lot of wildlife. Not just pollinators, there are squirrels there and all sorts already, but if it was left more uncut then it might be a bit more encouraging for nature.”
Alan approached several people about the idea, and once he got through to the right team at the council, he was met with a positive response.
“Hopefully, it will become part of a bigger thing such as the River Foss wildlife corridor. There are already lots of little places where there are woods and open spaces that aren’t farmed.” Alan added.
The project will involve input from the local community, Woodmeadow Trust, City of York Council and St Nick’s Nature Reserve.
Debbie Manson, Senior Communications Manager at City of York Council, outlined the plans for the wood meadow:
“The project involves a small area of the site being left un-mown to see if botanical interest is present. This will inform how we can improve and manage the area efficiently.
“The area is currently used mainly by dog walkers. It is hoped that the site, which is currently cut for amenity grass, will become a beautiful woodland meadow with improved biodiversity and increased pollinator activity.
“Hopefully, further down the line, we can look at reinstating the pond, planting more trees, introducing picnic benches and increasing the wildflower area from predominantly amenity grass. This is down the line though, and pending funding.”
So what sort of difference will the wood meadow make for local wildlife? Dan Carne from Wood Meadow Trust said: “Even not mowing the grass will make a huge difference to the wildlife, particularly for things like butterflies. Most of the time they’re dependant on a particular species of grass or flower and they will lay their eggs on this particular plant and the caterpillars will only eat this particular plant. When they emerge as adults, they can take nectar from all sorts of places, you know, people’s gardens and wherever. But if you keep mowing a meadow, it’s impossible for them to lay their eggs, and they can’t survive very easily.”
The green space has got some potential, Dan explains: “I did a survey of the grassland and looking at the potential for wildflowers and what was already present, I found that whilst it’s not very diverse at the moment there were, in places, a few flowers that given the opportunity would flower if they weren’t getting mowed.
On-site there’s already a few patches of Lesser Celandine, there’s Cuckooflower and Meadowsweet in patches particularly near the old pond, and a little bit of yarrow.”
There’s scope for the local community to get involved, too: “I’m hoping that we will be able to involve the community in the management of that space moving forward. Because it’s beautiful and it’s got a lot of potential for the community as well as for wildlife. The aim is mainly just to enhance the community experience.”
If you live locally and would like to keep up to date with the project, or get involved, email info@yourlocallink.co.uk.
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