‘Rush to rewild’ could put wildflower-rich meadows at risk

While rewilding, which aims to return land to a more “natural” state, can provide opportunities for the UK’s wild plants, many will still need grazing or other kinds of disturbance such as ploughing or cultivating to thrive. Wildflower meadows are some of the UK’s most species-rich habitats, but are found on less than 1 per cent of the country’s land area, wildlife charity Plantlife said ahead of National Meadows Day on Saturday. More than 97 per cent of meadows have been lost since the 1930s and the remaining fragments have poor legal protection, the charity warned. They also face mounting risks from the abandonment of land and under-grazing, leading to open landscapes changing from grassland to scrub and eventually to woodland as taller plants out-compete smaller ones for light. Grazing and disturbance by livestock trampling on the ground, or ploughing, cultivating, hay cutting and even scrub clearance or coppicing in woodlands “re-sets the ecological clock” on this process. This allows smaller, more delicate species to thrive in open ground full of sunlight, Plantlife’s Dr Trevor Dines said. Research by Plantlife reveals that 40 per cent of more than 1,500 wild plant species analysed would decline within a decade if the land they grow on is entirely abandoned. Some 127 species (16 per cent) would be in decline within three years. Three-quarters of the country’s most threatened species, including burnt-tip orchid, pasqueflower and crested cow-wheat, would decline or disappear within three years if all management and grazing is removed, the experts warn. Some of the first to go if land is abandoned are species that live in cultivated arable land such as cornflowers which will vanish very quickly without the soil being disturbed, Dr Dines said, while meadow plants would follow. Of meadows, he said: “In the rush to rewild, that most species-rich habitat in Britain, these open areas flooded with sunlight, are the ones that are most likely to disappear. And he said: “Because they are so rare in the landscape, they are a little Noah’s Ark of biodiversity.” If they are lost, it will mean losing “precious little landscapes” from which other areas could be reseeded and restored. But he also warned too much interference was as damaging as abandonment.