Guidance Grassland

Index section Grassland

• Grassland butterflies
• Black-tailed godwit, snipe, lapwing, ruff: distribution
• Meadow birds: population trends
• Black-tailed godwit: breeding success
• Geese, and overwintering localities: trends in numbers
• Soil fauna and the stocking rate of grasslands

Introduction

Round about 1950 much of the grassland used was damp and hardly fertilised (so-called semi-natural grassland). This type of grassland is home to many plant species and butterflies. Meadow birds are also very common on this grassland, especially if there is fertilised grassland nearby. The semi-natural grasslands mostly disappeared before 1975. Those that remain are nearly all in nature reserves.

In the last thirty years the numbers of certain meadow bird species have declined in the agricultural area; this decline has not yet stopped. Butterflies are also declining in the grassland areas - not only in the agricultural area but also in nature reserves.

Geese, however, benefit from the intensive use of grasslands. Since the 1960s their numbers have been rising.