Meadow rescue: Help save our wildflower meadows

Aim

Help us expand wildflower-rich habitats in the Yorkshire Dales, support thousands of species of wildlife and tackle climate change.

With more than 97% of our wildflower meadows already lost, we need your help to save these extraordinary ecosystems.

Wildflower meadows cover just 1% of land in the UK but can be home to thousands of species of wildlife. The Meadow Rescue campaign will bring people together to expand wildflower-rich habitats in the Yorkshire Dales, helping to support biodiversity and fight climate change.  

In the Yorkshire Dales our upland meadows are home to more than 700 species of wild plants and support many priority wildlife species such as bumblebees, bats, hedgehogs, hares, and our iconic curlew. The sheer diversity of plants in a species-rich meadow helps slow rainwater run-off and reduce flood risks and makes them more resilient to extreme weather. One hectare of meadow stores an estimated three tonnes of carbon dioxide every year!

As our few remaining meadows become increasingly isolated and fragmented it's more important than ever to expand and protect these biodiverse, carbon-storing habitats. 

Traditionally managed meadows are important places for people to connect with nature too. We work with farmers and community groups to enable people to come together to enjoy our wildflower habitats and to take action to protect and restore them.

Working together we have the chance to repair and restore our precious wildflower meadows.

With your donations Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust can build on 17 years of meadow restoration work to: 

• Restore 60 hectares of meadow over the next three years
• Re-introduce rarer wildflower species identified through citizen science research
• Provide meadow management training and support to land managers  
• Create a network of small community wildflower patches

Working alongside farmers and communities, we will establish a mosaic of connected wildflower-rich habitats for wildlife, ensuring this rich habitat is managed to give the greatest benefit for biodiversity and climate and can be enjoyed for generations to come.  

Here's how your donation can help:

• £20 could help restore 60 square metres of species-rich wildflower meadow
• £40 could help to create a community pollinator patch
• £200 can help us deliver one meadow management training session for farmers

"Walking through a hay meadow in early summer is a wonderful experience but showing people how to engage more deeply with the ecosystem takes things to a different dimension. That’s when people really start to feel a deeper connection with nature and develop a real passion.”
Helen Fleece, owner of Swainshead Farm

Meadows in the Yorkshire Dales: the story so far

The loss of species-rich meadows and grasslands is unparalleled in the history of nature conservation in the UK. When Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) first started restoring hay meadows in 2006, less than four square miles of species-rich hay meadow habitat remained in the whole of the UK.

Since then we've been working hard to conserve and restore hay meadows and protect the wildlife they support. Working alongside farmers and partners 750 hectares (that's almost 3 square miles!) of degraded meadows across the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland are now on the road to being restored. Our aim is to reach 850 hectares in the next three years, helping to bring this precious habitat back from the brink.

The support of local communities and people like you is critical to ensure the survival of our meadows. We hope you'll join us to champion our wildflower habitats and to take action to protect and restore them.

Thanks for reading. For more information about our work you can visit our website www.ydmt.org/wildflower-meadows

A big thanks from the YDMT team

This project successfully funded on 11th May 2023