Lowland Meadows and Pastures

The loss of traditional meadows and species-rich pastures is one of the largest changes to have been wrought on our countryside since the Second World War. National surveys estimate that over 97% of flower-rich grassland has been lost since the 1930s, replaced by agriculturally improved pasture managed under an entirely different – and ecologically impoverished – regime of fertilisation, reseeding and frequent cutting. What remains in Suffolk, while fragmented, includes some of the finest lowland grassland in East Anglia, and its survival depends almost entirely on the continuation of low-intensity traditional management.

Species-rich neutral grasslands and flood meadows are characterised by their botanical diversity, which in turn supports high invertebrate abundance and the birds that depend on them – particularly ground-nesting waders and seed-eating species. The green-winged orchid (Anacamptis morio) is the flagship of this assemblage, its colonies on ancient, unimproved pastures serving as clear indicators of long-undisturbed, unfertilised swards. Other characteristic plants include pepper-saxifrage, green-winged orchid, adder’s-tongue fern and a range of sedges and fine-leaved grasses that disappear quickly once nutrient levels rise.

Churchyards and road verges – though ecologically marginal – are increasingly recognised as important refugia. Many Suffolk churchyards manage their grass in ways that inadvertently replicate traditional meadow conditions, and some hold plant communities that have been lost from the surrounding agricultural landscape. Road verge networks, if managed on cutting regimes that allow flowering and seeding, can function as linear corridors of flower-rich grassland. The LNRS explicitly identifies these non-agricultural grassland contexts as priority areas, reflecting a recognition that conservation at a landscape scale must make use of every available habitat.