Blue Remembered Hills
Wild Seed Harvesting
The wildflower meadow element of the project was taken on by Fiona Gomersall last year from the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The funding contributes towards creating meadows from scratch or enhancing existing meadows to encourage more diversity. In 2005 Fiona has created or enhanced 17 meadows and harvested five for meadow seed. This has included the enhancement of grassland at a local school where children are now having workshops on wild flower identification.
Volunteers have helped with botanical surveys, improving their skills and providing an important service.
Central to this work is the recording of previously undiscovered sites so that a map of the meadows in the Shropshire Hills is developing. Many of these fields then go on to be wildlife sites.
A seminar aimed at increasing the use of local provenance wildflower seed in amenity plantings was attended by 50 people and was well received.