Ms Emma Rothero

Through this project-Mitti Matters-citizens, community groups, policy makers, green-space managers, and university staff will work together to write a larger proposal for public funding to explore how restoring floodplain-meadows can deliver valuable ecosystem services. (Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment.)In achieving this overarching objective, we will connect equitable approaches to engagement through environmental science in ways that deliver excellent science, build capacity among the participants, and promote inclusion with minoritized people and groups

Floodplain meadows help to reduce flood peaks, acting as natural flood storage and remove nutrients deposited in floods through their productive hay crop. From spring 2025 to summer 2026, in collaboration with Natural England and the Environment Agency, the FMP wishes to analyse soil carbon in the grasslands on the Nene and Ouse River catchments. The key objective being to evidence the contribution of floodplain meadows in removing excess nutrients from water courses, and in their ability to store carbon in their deep soils. This vital work contributes towards Nutrient Neutrality measures and the journey towards net zero.

Soil health is an important component of a sustainable environment. Ancient hay meadows in river floodplains, like North Meadow NNR, are amongst the best examples of species-rich plant communities, which support a high diversity of soil biota together with well-structured, carbon-rich soil. Soil compaction can be caused by heavy machinery, grazing animals, or simple footfall. The monitoring of soil physical conditions can play a key part in site management.

The project aims to recover populations of two rare floodplain meadow plant species - Oenanthe silaifolia (Narrow-Leaved Water-Dropwort) and Myosurus minimus (Mousetail) - through habitat enhancement and sowing/planting at the Lugg Meadows on the edge of Hereford in the River Wye Catchment. The national hectarage of land where these species occur will increase by 3.6% and the local area where these species can thrive will increase by nearly 25%. Both target species are key components of MG4 Alopecurus pratensis - Sanguisorba officinalis floodplain meadow grasslands. Impeded drainage and mono species grazing have led to deteriorated condition of the habitat at the Lugg Meadows. The project will recover these species through re-introducing cattle grazing, improving soil health and water infiltration and through sowing/planting. We will harvest and propagate seeds and plant resulting plugs at new locations on the project site where our target species have disappeared or become rare. We will survey to identify the best areas for donor and receptor locations and to measure the success of the sowing/planting. We will install infrastructure to enable cattle grazing throughout the project site. We will identify where drainage channels are impeded and carry out re-profiling to improve their efficiency.

The species-rich wet meadows of Scotland are hitherto largely unknown in conservation circles. Equivalent habitats in England, Wales are Ireland are widely recognized, celebrated and actively protected and conserved, thanks in large part to research and restoration activity undertaken by the Floodplains meadows Partnership (FMP, led by The Open University. Following a visit to the Outer Hebrides last year by FMP staff and Steering Group members, it became apparent that the chain of islands may contain as much of this rate grassland type as the rest of mainland United Kingdom. The extent and distribution of these grasslands is unknown, and many of the sites have little or no legal protection against future management change, development or abandonment. These meadows, typically found on the landward side of wet machair systems, have evolved through centuries of crofting (a sustainable farming system), but are now threatened by abandonment of framing and changing government policies. We propose to survey species-rich wet meadows in Scotland this summer (2019), focusing on those areas associated with machair systems. We intend to focus our efforts on the Outer and inner Hebrides, the Shetlands and specific target sites of mainland Scotland where concentrations of this habitat persist, to advocate for the management and protection of these biodiverse sites for nature.

Additional funding support to the FMP project from existing funder to cover work as a result of changes to plan following COVID outbreak.

Public engagement artwork at the Avon Meadows Floodplain during 2021

The Floodplain Meadows led by a small academic team at The Open University, propose a pilot project to start the process of gathering more systematic evidence of the historical extent and importance of floodplain meadows. Understanding a meadow’s history brings a much deeper perspective of its value and place in the local community. It may also help to inform future management and restoration and can promote wider community engagement with a site (particularly where the botanical interest is relatively low). With a generous grant of £12,000 we will work in partnership with a small archaeological consultancy who have been developing a method for researching historical evidence in river catchments. Starting with the Stour catchment in Dorset we would like to undertake a desk-based GIS (geographic information system) project to: • Estimate how much of the floodplain in the Stour catchment was floodplain meadow • Work out floodplain meadow distribution by Parish boundaries. Did every parish have its own share of floodplain? • Decide whether we can relate the size of floodplain meadow in a parish to the size of its population Depending on what this pilot project reveals, we would like to extend this work to other catchments, prioritising those along the River Thames.

The Parties have agreed to collaborate on a Research Project to: 1. Undertake a twelve-year Sward Diversity Research Trial looking at the effect of cutting date on the botanical diversity of the grassland sward at the Site. 2. Combine the Sward Diversity Research Trial with the delivery of the Botanical and Hydrological Monitoring requirement set by Natural England. 3. Support an OU PhD Student (Vicky Bowskill) (“the Student”) to undertake a separate three-year Hay Quality Research Trial looking at the effect of cutting date on hay quality to be carried out simultaneously with the Sward Diversity Research Trial for the first three years of the Research Period.

Modelling of hydrology at North Meadow and Elmlea SSIs for Hills Quarry Ltd and botanical survey of Elmlea SSSI annually.

The Floodplain Meadows team would like to increase their research output by employing a 6 months full time post doc (or 1-year part-time) in order to analyse the Meadows Database and extract patterns of change across the sites with long term datasets from the past 25 years. The outputs would be based around research papers including: • FMP as a model • Restoration • Hydrological drivers for shaping plant communities • Conservation Evidence - Fancott, East Cottingwith, North Meadow, Mottey • Soil carbon if data are available • Methane paper • Natural capital • Plant community assemblages – working with Russian statistician and Irina • Getting meadows database into SQL • Scottish Calthion plant communities paper 2. Develop the Scottish Calthion plant community project to the state where they can publish the revised communities. This will require employing a contractor to undertake a specialist analysis and help to produce a final report. 3. Support some work on historical context of floodplain meadows in England by employing a specialist contractor to undertake some archaeological and archive research into history of floodplain management and identify the extent of floodplain meadows.

This project will restore priority wetland habitats in the farmed landscape, safeguard the threatened and iconic curlew, build local capacity for wetland creation and monitoring, and connect local people with nature. It will deliver the objectives of the ‘Pondscapes’ (ghost pond restoration) and the Curlew projects within the Severn & Avon Vales. Working with FWAG and others, it will create and restore, in particular, ponds and lowland floodplain meadows on farms, undertake some wetland rewilding (river restoration and natural flood management) on two estates, and deliver Curlew restoration activities, including Building upon the Severn Vale Guardians and Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) initiatives, it will increase awareness and enthusiasm for wildlife-friendly farming among stakeholders, especially farmers, and will train a network of people (FWAG, other professionals and students) so that there is broader base of skilled people able to roll out this work after March 2023.

Donation from Judith Purrsell to support the activities of Floodplain Meadows group.

The Floodplain Meadows Partnership (the Partnership)’s mission is to address the urgent need to conserve Britain’s floodplain meadows. Its strategic priorities are to: • Promote the benefits of floodplain meadows to relevant stakeholder groups, including policymakers, through effective partnership working. • Facilitate the management and restoration of floodplain meadows, enabling them to deliver beauty and utility. The Partnership seeks to demonstrate the value of functioning meadows to a range of direct beneficiaries, to increase public appreciation of them and to advocate for their restoration. We collaborate with landowners on project delivery, providing evidence-based guidance and helping to devise and implement floodplain meadow restoration plans. We work with over 40 NGOs and 15 statutory bodies responsible for floodplain meadows, and community groups involved in site management, providing advice and case studies. We run management and research trials with private landowners, and landowners are involved in identifying management and restoration problems for further research, continuing the iterative cycle of learning and implementing to benefit nature. Public engagement remains an important strand of our work, as we see the wider public as the ultimate beneficiaries of Partnership activity: having beautiful places to visit and benefiting from the myriad of ecosystem-services provided by floodplain meadow habitat. These benefits contribute to a more sustainable world, through considerate food production, flood-risk management, carbon storage, nutrient regulation, biodiversity conservation and the preservation of social history. Our advocacy work promotes the findings of our research activity, used to lobby Government to help shape policy supportive of floodplain meadows.

The Floodplain Meadows team have been invited to submit a survey to Natural England for North Meadow National Nature Reserve Continued Botanical and Hydrological Monitoring Works Quotation is required for the following work: 1.Repeat Botanical Survey of North Meadow 370 quadrats. 2.Additional survey of newly acquired Frogsham. 3.Collection and processing of hydrological data from existing dipwells in North Meadow. 4.Analysis and reporting of collected data. 5.Theoretical analysis of compaction due to recreational pressure on North Meadow with a view to potentially carrying out more detailed field survey in 2023

This project will restore priority wetland habitats in the farmed landscape, safeguard the threatened and iconic curlew, build local capacity for wetland creation and monitoring, and connect local people with nature. It will deliver the objectives of the ‘Pondscapes’ (ghost pond restoration) and the Curlew projects within the Severn & Avon Vales. Working with FWAG and others, it will create and restore, in particular, ponds and lowland floodplain meadows on farms, undertake some wetland rewilding (river restoration and natural flood management) on two estates, and deliver Curlew restoration activities, including Building upon the Severn Vale Guardians and Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) initiatives, it will increase awareness and enthusiasm for wildlife-friendly farming among stakeholders, especially farmers, and will train a network of people (FWAG, other professionals and students) so that there is broader base of skilled people able to roll out this work after March 2023.

Determine typical baseline soil carbon values for different land use types in the floodplain. Calculate predicted soil carbon baseline for Worcestershire floodplain meadows. Agree with Worcestershire County Council a floodplain meadow habitat map for Worcestershire that assigns site parcels to one of the four land use categories above within the Flood Zone 2 boundary. Based on agreed habitat map calculate the potential current soil carbon baseline in floodplain meadows in Worcestershire, broken down by the four land use categories. Describe and cost management prescriptions for floodplain meadow restoration to maximise soil carbon capture and storage Using hypothetical site scenarios. Describe optimum management prescriptions for floodplain meadow restoration based on the assumption that managing for particular plant communities will maximise soil carbon storage. These prescriptions can be costed per ha, using in-year costs per ha from Stewardship datasets/Nix pocketbook.

The Open University’s Floodplain Meadows Partnership art competition based around North Meadow National Nature Reserve in Wiltshire.

Public engagement artwork at the Avon Meadows Floodplain during 2021

It is the Donor’s intention that the gift be used to support survey work at North Meadow National Nature Reserve in Wiltshire as part of the Floodplain Meadows Partnership.

Engage a contiguous stretch of landowners on the River Windrush floodzone; Gather existing and collect missing data to inform habitat restoration; Publish a 20 year plan to restore, enlarge and connect floodplain meadows on the River Windrush .

The project aims to provide advice to the Environment Agency about the York Flood Alleviation Scheme and impacts on the species rich floodplain meadows at Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings SSSI alongside grassland restoration.

This is an umbrella record for consultancy contracts undertaken by Floodplain Meadows research group to the value of £5K per contract.

This is an umbrella record for consultancy contracts undertaken by Floodplain Meadows research group.

The Floodplain Meadows Partnership is an Open University-led consortium of ten like-minded organisations (Natural England, Environment Agency, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Field Studies Council, National Trust, People Need Nature and Natural Resources Wales) formed to address the urgent need to maintain and promote Britain’s now rare floodplain meadows. Alongside carbon sequestration, floodplain meadows offer a myriad of ecosystem-services and contribute to a more sustainable world, through regenerative agricultural practice, nutrient regulation, water-quality improvement, biodiversity conservation and the preservation of social history. The meadows help to reduce flood peaks, acting as natural flood storage and remove nutrients deposited in floods through their productive hay crop. To promote and support these services we are working with organisations such as Natural England and the Environment Agency to evidence the contribution of floodplain meadows in removing excess nutrients from water courses, and in their ability to store carbon in their deep soils, contributing towards Nutrient Neutrality measures and the journey towards net zero.

To support the existing project co-ordinator and associated staff, contractors and activities for the continuation of the Floodplain Meadows Partnership

Esmee Fairbairn have advised the Development office that we can claim for additional cost of living support payment for a successful grant

The Floodplain Meadows Partnership was formed in 2006 with a mission to address the urgent need to promote and conserve Britain's floodplain meadows. Its focus is now on an ambitious three-year restoration, advocacy and engagement programme to ensure the future of floodplain meadows. The Partnership seeks to demonstrate the value of functioning meadows, to increase public appreciation of them and to advocate for their restoration as a tool for tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies.

Over the next three years, the Advocacy Officer continue to build relationships with Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency to work towards two vital goals: 1. Nutrient neutrality The current formal scheme seems liable to abandonment by the government, but the scheme concept will remain, whereby funding is available to mitigate excess nutrients in river systems by creating nutrient absorbing habitats. We are keen to continue pushing Natural England to accept floodplain meadows as a mechanism to remove phosphorus from river systems through removal of a hay crop. If this is accepted, we know developers and others see floodplain meadows as a more cost effective system in nutrient mitigation than constructed wetlands. We believe it will result in the restoration of a large amount of meadow. In order to se this policy change through we need to have Olivia continuing to press NE/Defra/Water companies to restore meadow on floodplain to clean rivers. Additionally, we wish to purse the idea of the National Trust taking out long-term covenants on private land in return for the landowner receiving compensation from developer/water company outside the statutory scheme. 2. Floodplain-meadow option within ELMs The development of a floodplain meadow specific option in ELM is really important in seeing increased restoration of floodplain meadows. The current lowland meadow option does not differentiate between dry and wet meadows and this is problematic in terms of correct management, as the needs are very different in the two systems.Olivia will maintain pressure on Defra to see the option through to publication and to develop information, advice and guidance to enable useful uptake of the option once it is available.

Britain has lost 97% of its flower-rich grasslands during the last century. Meadows found on floodplains were particularly hard hit by agricultural intensification, urban and industrial development, mineral extraction, and water abstraction. In response to these losses, the EU Habitats Directive designated the characteristic plant community of floodplain meadows as a protected habitat. However, species-rich meadows remain at risk from the increasing pressure of climate change and poor management. Action is needed to conserve and restore this exceptional habitat. These meadows support a complex ecosystem with 40 plant species per square metre, plus a wide variety of invertebrates, soil organisms, and birdlife. They also provide a range of valuable ecosystem services such as carbon storage, nutrient trapping, and mitigating flood risk. This project from the Floodplain Meadows Partnership (https://www.floodplainmeadows.org.uk) will focus on three key areas of Welsh floodplain: Wye catchment, Gwent, and Carmarthenshire.

It is the Donor's intention that the gift be used for: An invertebrate survey of Long Mead an old Floodplain Meadow on the Thames just upstream of Oxford beginning this summer; Measuring soil-carbon storage in a new catchment. Plan this summer, deliver next summer, report winter. Map records of meadows in Domesday and link to population size across the UK by March 2023. Ground-truth the method developed by Fjodr, against already established archive research on the Yorkshire Ouse by June 2023. Soil analysis for a new project designed to attract yellow wagtails back to the Thames downstream of Oxford beginning in 2023.

Over the next three years, the Advocacy Officer continue to build relationships with Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency to work towards two vital goals: 1. Nutrient neutrality The current formal scheme seems liable to abandonment by the government, but the scheme concept will remain, whereby funding is available to mitigate excess nutrients in river systems by creating nutrient absorbing habitats. We are keen to continue pushing Natural England to accept floodplain meadows as a mechanism to remove phosphorus from river systems through removal of a hay crop. If this is accepted, we know developers and others see floodplain meadows as a more cost effective system in nutrient mitigation than constructed wetlands. We believe it will result in the restoration of a large amount of meadow. In order to se this policy change through we need to have Olivia continuing to press NE/Defra/Water companies to restore meadow on floodplain to clean rivers. Additionally, we wish to purse the idea of the National Trust taking out long-term covenants on private land in return for the landowner receiving compensation from developer/water company outside the statutory scheme. 2. Floodplain-meadow option within ELMs The development of a floodplain meadow specific option in ELM is really important in seeing increased restoration of floodplain meadows. The current lowland meadow option does not differentiate between dry and wet meadows and this is problematic in terms of correct management, as the needs are very different in the two systems.Olivia will maintain pressure on Defra to see the option through to publication and to develop information, advice and guidance to enable useful uptake of the option once it is available.

Each year, thousands of visitors are attracted to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and Shetland where a rich diversity of species are sustained by unique wet grasslands known as wet machair. Working in consultation with NatureScot and The University of Edinburgh, the Floodplain Meadows Partnership (FMP) is seeking £75,301.64 from a consortium of funders to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of wet machair systems to benefit people and nature. Related species rich wet grasslands in England and Wales are believed to total just 1100 ha, but an equivalent inventory for Scotland does not (yet) exist. The Floodplain Meadows Partnership have been surveying the machair habitat since 2019 through activity generously funded by The Halpin Trust. In this time, we have undertaken a wide consultation on the plant communities, conducted surveys on the land (including soil sampling, and collecting hydrological and botanical data), and interviewed crofters in their communities. We have been analysing the dataset we have gathered from the Outer Hebrides, Inner Hebrides, north coast of Scotland and the Shetland Islands, comparing plant communities with those found in Ireland and England. We have set up four research sites (three on the Outer Hebrides and one on Shetland), including carrying out intensive botanical quadrat recording, installing dipwells to learn about groundwater movements, and taken soil samples. Project activity and findings to date were published in British Wildlife in December 2023 as well as several FMP newsletters. We are using the article and the detailed analysis undertaken so far on the machair plant communities as a basis for a planned academic paper (currently in draft). We hope to submit a version of this paper later in the spring so that we can share our findings about definitions of the plant communities found with the wider practitioner community, so that the vegetation communities identified can be formally recognised and protected.

It is the Donor’s intention that the gift be used to support the costs of The Floodplain Meadows Partnership for soil carbon lab processing and paper development