Brilliant news, thanks everyone!

By Long Mead Foundation and Nature Recovery Network
Coming together as a whole community (including schoolchildren, vulnerable adults, farmers and pensioners) to save the UK’s rarest floodplain meadow habitat by creating new meadows in between them
We have connected up 210ha of ancient and restored floodplain meadows between Port Meadow and Pinkhill Lock, by creating meadows and associated habitats (hedgerows, wetlands) on the intervening land. We have also created over 30 acres along the Cherwell River in Oxford to buffer the Marston Meads SSSIs. By purchasing a manure spreader to spread seed, and a flail collector to manage new meadows, as well as a greenhouse (both to support the rarer wildflowers that we propagate by hand and to provide shelter for our volunteers through the winter) the project will help the community improve and scale up efforts. We have now leased 50 acres for community restoration and taken a hay-making license on another 20 acres. This will be the first time that we will have complete control over ongoing management (a critical element of success), which will enable us to demonstrate best management practice to local landowners and the community.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
Our landscape-scale nature recovery project is unique in being led by expert members living in the local community, rather than parachuted in from an outside Ngo. We show that this provides a rare sustainability, since they are engaged for the long term. It means that our activities benefit nature as well as people. Our decentralised network means we scale up in a way that most community nature recovery efforts can’t. The tractor equipment will be added to our tractor pool and loaned to other groups and individuals so that they can manage newly created meadows properly. Removal of the grass twice a year is critical to success. The greenhouse will keep our volunteers warm in winter and protect the rarest plants. Our project proves that action for nature improves mental health and social cohesion and brings the most isolated people into the heart of the community. It provides a safe learning environment from learning to put soil into a pot to scientific research into a rare ecosystem.
Steps to get it done:
Our community plant propagation project grows some of the UK’s rarest plants, including Devil’s bit scabious, Narrow-leaved water dropwort, Marsh stitchwort and Great Burnet. These will be planted out in the newly created meadows. Since 2020, we have planted over 1.5km of hedgerow with the community, and we plan to plant another 1.5km over the next 3 years. Our community surveys, will increase our understanding of the reptiles, birds, water voles, water invertebrates, water quality, invertebrates and the plants in our local area, enabling us to protect them better.
Gallery
Journey
Follow this project You are following this project for updates to your inbox
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 30 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Whoop, 10 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Whoop, 10 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Target (inc. fees) £34,123
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Target (inc. fees) £34,123
Our Volunteer List
Want to help?
Do you have stuff or skills to contribute to this project? Use this tool to offer something to the project creator.
Volunteer