There’s so much to do at Iffley Meadows for Nicole Clough, Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust’s Oxfordshire reserves officer

With a record count of 89,830 snake’s-head fritillary plants at Oxford’s Iffley Meadows this year, you might think we’ve got the management of these floodplain meadows next to the River Thames about right.

But more work on this site is just beginning.

I’m leading the Iffley Meadows Biodiversity Improvement Project, which will help us to look after the meadows so they’re in good condit-ion, balancing the wetness needed for many plants, with cattle grazing and taking a hay cut. All these are vital ingredients for a fantastic show of wild flowers and butterflies through the spring and summer.

To many people who walk around the Meadows or along the towpath, the sight of machinery and fencing on the nature reserve might come as a surprise, but these are essential if we’re going to look after snake’s-head fritillaries.

The Wildlife Trust took on the management of Iffley Meadows in 1983 when the numbers of fritillary plants was only 500. With careful and traditional methods of managing the site we have increased them, and learnt how to improve the site for more wildlife.

The snake’s-head fritillaries flower in April, and are closely followed by a host of other spring- time flowers such as the delicately pink-coloured cuckooflower, which attracts the orange-tip butterflies and golden flowers of marsh marigold that thrive in damp meadows. Our four-legged volun-teers step in during May to graze the areas that are not hay meadows. Cattle eat the taller grasses and sedges, which creates varied habitats for insects and small mammals, but also stops these plants from crowding out the snake’s-head fritillaries and other wild flowers.

By mid-June the meadows are a stunning, colourful mosaic with the purples of common knapweed, yellow-flowered meadow vetchling and deep red of great burnet.

In the middle of July, after many of the flower seeds have set, a hay cut is taken. The new improved access track is essential for moving the bales off.

Grazing certain areas more intensively for shorter periods of time will improve the conditions for wild flowers. This is why we are installing more fencing now so that we can move livestock easily between different sections of the site. Funding for fencing, a cattle grid, a corral and access track has come from SITA Trust and Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE2) – bringing Landfill Communities Fund money to this important biodiversity project.

Every winter we pollard a number of willows alongside the ditches and streams that run through the meadows to prolong the life of these beautiful trees. There will be more work along the ditches this winter to aid the flow of water onto and off the meadows at times of flood and help the soil to dry out in the spring.

We’ve also put in pasture pumps for the cattle to drink fresh water without damaging the banks or causing sediment and poor water quality in the ditches and streams.

Oxford Mail:
Colourful: Knapweed fills the meadows in summer

Last week Iffley Meadows was the setting for the signing of an agreement for a new working partnership between the Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. This will cover the habitats around several rivers in the Upper Thames area north of Abingdon as well as the Upper Ray Living Landscape on the border with Buckinghamshire.

More than 97 per cent of lowland meadows have been lost in the last century and Oxfordshire remains one of a few strongholds, with a good percentage of what is left. The RSPB and BBOWT share the vision that in 30 years’ time the river valleys of the Upper Thames will be an even great-er site for wildlife and communities.

Iffley Meadows nature reserve is owned by Oxford City Council and is central to one of Oxford’s green corridors, providing a rare urban refuge for wildlife. Hundreds of people visited the nature reserve during the last few weeks to admire the nodding bells of pink and purple, and occasionally white, flowers of the snake’s-head fritillaries. Our work here will ensure these beauties continue to flourish and multiply.

Iffley Meadows are just a mile from the centre of Oxford, abutting the city’s southern bypass and the River Thames