Working under the auspices of Padraic Keirns, Conservation Volunteers on August 29th 2015 started to undertake the development of the first native wildflower meadow in Terryland
Forest Park. The project involved first preparing the ground by cutting
back the grass, before the sowing of yellow rattle which is known as the ‘meadow
maker’ as it reduces grass growth as well as other native Irish wildflower
species as devil's-bit scabious, crow garlic, ragged robin, ox eye daisy, primrose
and poppy.
A number of other meadows have been developed in the years since.
Up until COVID restrictions curtailed group activities, volunteers annually mowed the grass using the traditional
hand scythes.
Why are Meadows important?
Meadows were once
a defining feature of rural Ireland, bringing beauty, colour and a rich
biodiversity to our countryside. These
hay fields were populated by a diverse range of wildflowers such as clover,
buttercup, daisy, ragged robin, poppy, bird’s-foot trefoil and yarrow providing
an important home for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. However urbanisation, the use of
chemical fertilisers and intensive monoculture farming in the modern era has
eliminated much of these traditional grasslands leading to a collapse in the
numbers of native non-woody plants and a corresponding decrease in the insect
populations that fed off them as well as the rest of the interlinked organisms
of an ecosystem such as birds and mammals.
Surveys in
Britain have shown that the country has lost over 97% of its meadow habitat
since World War Two. Though no national statistics exists in Ireland,
nevertheless a similar situation probably occurs here.
