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I have often joked that haymeadows should be managed by English Heritage, rather than nature conservation organisations. The reason for this is articulated in the article. The decline in species-rich haymeadows are just as much, if not more, about the loss of our cultural heritage than our biological heritage.
The cutting of hay was a big event in the annual calendar. Communities would come together to assist each other in cutting, turning and gathering the swath. Without help, this was a herculean task. The slow process allowed those animals that depended on the longer grass, invertebrates, small mammals and iconic birds such as corncrakes, to escape and move around the landscape.
Mechanisation increased the speed at first, but the community aspect was still there as stooks were replaced by idiot-blocks (small bales). They still required much help and haymaking was still an event. But things started to change, tractors got bigger, balers got bigger. The speed increased, now an entire valley can be cut and gathered in a couple of days by a couple of contractors. That camaraderie has gone, the sense of community and the cultural heritage has gone too.
What I do find interesting is that in somewhere like the Lake District, which is a #WorldHeritageSite for its culture, there have been no proposals to bring back haymeadows as part of the 'authentic management'. Instead, you cannot diversify away from the post headage sheep numbers, artificially elevated in the 1980s and 90s, their numbers have declined from the peak, but are still roughly twice that found in 1950. That means they need feed and the only way of providing them enough is the continued intensive management of artificial fertilisers and multiple cuts of silage and haylage. This means there is no room for the culturally significant haymeadows in the 'OUV' of the WHS Inscription. An utter nonsense if ever there was one.
Perhaps we will one day reach enlightenment and have haymeadows more common again But, wouldn't it be better to see those plants that make our haymeadows special, growing freely in a mosaic of habitat, grazed naturally and ephemerally by a cohort of grazers. That has to be the aim of nature recovery, to view our much venerated species assemblages in their naturally ecological context. One day, one day...
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