Wildflower project hailed success

Long Meadow Barton Common Group has been part of the below project. The 3 areas of wild flowers planted in Long Meadow from the group have been very successful and enjoyed by all using the meadow.

From the Daily Echo:

Hampshire wildflower project hailed as one of the country's best by experts

A WILDFLOWER project in the New Forest has been hailed as one of the best in the country by experts from Kew Gardens. Hundreds of people have helped grow swathes of native flowers at six community meadows and ten schools in the Lymington and Barton on Sea areas. The Grow Wild scheme aims to brighten up schools and public places as well as providing nectar for bees and other pollinating insects.

Those benefitting from the project include patients at Lymington New Forest Hospital, who have seen neighbouring meadows buzzing with wildlife. Grants of between £1,000 and £4,000 have also been awarded to similar schemes across the Forest.

Vinny Ganley, England Partnership Manager at Kew, said: “The Grow Wild project in the New Forest has been fantastic. “It’s one of the best examples from across the country of a community coming together to re-establish wildflowers and help our bees and butterflies.” The scheme has created colourful displays of poppies, corn marigolds and bluebells. Those involved include pupils at Pennington Junior School and Priestlands School in Lymington. Wildflowers have also been planted at Bransgore Primary School.

Project co-ordinator Gill Hickman, from Transition Lymington, said: “So many areas have been transformed by wildflowers. “My hope is that with these successes we can get similar schemes off the ground to inspire communities and enhance biodiversity.”

The success of the scheme has also been welcomed by Angela Peters from the New Forest Land Advice Service. She said: “We’ve been delighted to support this project, which has shown the flower of flowers to draw communities together. “It’s been wonderful to see so many children and schools getting involved. Their enthusiasm will be vital in future years to help conserve vital habitats for our wildlife.”

Other organisations involved include Barton on Sea Community Group, the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and the town councils at Lymington and New Milton.

Original article here.

Barton Common and Long Meadow – an update from the Community Wildlife Plans Project and New Milton Town Council. June 2015

Last winter volunteers helped New Milton Town Council clear some of the scrub and Rhododendron from Barton Common. The Community Wildlife Project ran 7 fortnightly tasks over the winter 2014-5 for volunteers to come and help clear scrub using hand tools. This has created more space for wildflowers and insects to spread across Barton Common. This work was carried out as part of the Council’s Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement with Natural England through which the site is being managed more sympathetically for wildlife.

On Saturday 2 May a guided bird walk on Barton Common was led by the County Bird Recorder Keith Betton. 16 local residents attended and with Keith’s expert guidance picked up some skills in bird identification. Species seen and/or heard include whitethroat, blackcap, chiff chaff and dunnock amongst other common bird species.

This spring 5 New Forest ponies owned by a New Forest Commoner were released onto Barton Common to continue to graze the site. Grazing with stock maintains the grassland habitat that is so important for wildflowers and insects.

Barton Common is home to many invertebrate species such as marbled white and green hairstreak butterflies and heath spotted orchids, and these and many other species will benefit from the management taking place at Barton Common through the HLS scheme. Volunteers monitor the butterfly populations through a weekly ‘butterfly transect’.

Green hairstreak butterfly

Long Meadow continues to be managed more sympathetically for wildlife also, with the edges of the Becton Bunny being left uncut for spring and summer period. This has resulted in a number of wildflower species flowering including meadowsweet, yellow flag iris, hemlock water dropwort, brooklime, water cress, fool’s water cress and figwort. 3 species of damselfly have been seen this summer using the stream (azure/common, large red and beautiful demoiselle)

Beautiful demoiselle damselfly

Earlier this month the non-native and invasive ‘monkey flower’ (A Mimulus species) was removed from the edges of the stream. This plant is known to be invasive and can cause dense stands so please let the council know if this plant is spotted again. Although the roots were removed, the plant can reproduce from small fragments so it is likely to take several attempts to eradicate it. Whilst pulling Monkeyflower, several plants of another non-native and invasive plant Himalayan balsam were also removed.

Monkey Flower

Annual Summer Fayre at Long Meadow in Becton Lane, Barton

The birds of Barton Common

Wildflower meadow creation

Barton Common - Volunteer Scrub Bashing Tasks Winter 2014/2015

UPDATE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BARTON COMMON

Barton Common is now part of New Milton Town Council Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Scheme.  This means that over the coming years the Common will start to be environmentally managed via a cutting and grazing regime that will encourage a diverse number of species to thrive on the Common.

Update 4th August 2014

Next week, 6 New Forest ponies will be released on to Barton Common.  These grazing animals will be on site all year round and will help manage the Common by controlling the grass and scrub.  Some animals may be taken off site and others may be brought in depending on seasonal and ground conditions throughout the year.

The ponies will be checked on a regular basis by their owners who are New Forest Commoners.  If you visit Barton Common regularly would you like to help by keeping an eye on the animals, gates and fences to check they are o.k.?  If so, we can train you as a "looker" which will help to ensure that any issues can be addressed as soon as possible.  We will be running an evening training session with the grazier soon after the animals have been put out.

In the winter, New Milton Council will be undertaking scrub clearance (including willow, birch and gorse) on Barton Common in order to create a more open habitat of value to wildlife.  This work will take place between 1st October 2014 and 28th February 2015 to avoid disturbance to nesting birds and will largely be carried out by contractors with help from our volunteers as much as possible.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

If you are interested in finding out more or would like to get involved in some way in the wildlife conservation of the common or other sites in New Milton please contact Angela Peters at the New Forest Land Advice Service on 01590 646654 or 07880197351 angela.peters@nflandadvice.org.uk or New Milton Council 01425 619120 or Long Meadow & Barton Common Community Group at contact@longmeadowcommunitygroup.com

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The ponies will be released at 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday 13th August 2014.  If you are interested please come along for this momentous occasion.