Growth continues for North Wales wildflower meadow project

Biodiversity is blooming in Denbighshire thanks to the continued expansion of the county’s wildflower meadow project.

The 2023 season for the project starts with extra native meadows providing more support and protection for the county’s biodiversity by allowing wildflowers and insects to thrive.

Work to expand the project has taken place thanks to feedback gathered with the support of local members.

In total there will be approximately 129 meadows this season supporting biodiversity improvement which include highway verges, footpath edges, cycleways and amenity grasslands.

Along with the county roadside nature reserves which take the total number of wildflower sites up to 140, there will be just over 70 acres of meadows helping and protecting local nature thanks to the additional 15.2 acres coming on line this year.

Following the Council’s declaration of a climate and ecological emergency in 2019, this project started as an ongoing commitment to enhancing biodiversity across the county.

During the 2022 season 420 site surveys were carried out recording 4,567 individual wildflowers. Since the project began in 2019 a total of 10,157 individual wildflowers have been recorded on sites across Denbighshire.

Coming into 2023 the Council’s Biodiversity team has recorded 340 different plant species across all the active meadows.

Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “It’s been great to see this project continue to grow due to the support of local communities, volunteers and our Biodiversity and Streetscene teams.

Not only is it improving our local biodiversity for plants and wildlife, its helping rare species survive across the county, such as hounds tongue and spotted medick which have taken root on coastal sites and one Prestatyn site has both pyramidal orchids and spotted medick.

“Rare orchid species have also been found on our managed meadows in areas of Ruthin and Denbigh.

These sites are extremely important in helping tackle the impact of climate change in the county, they are giving our nature a much stronger chance of surviving and thriving for our future generations to enjoy in Denbighshire.

“A lot of work goes into the project to manage and protect these sites and I look forward to seeing the steady growth of our new sites and their contribution to Denbighshire’s biodiversity.”

This project has also been funded by Welsh Government, through the Local Nature Partnerships Cymru ENRaW project.