Page 3 - Managing Partner Awards Shortlist

Monkton

A lot of effort has been put in by Lynsey, Sarah, Jennifer and the team to create new glades
for Dingy Skippers which were recorded on site for the first time a few years ago, and have
now undergone a population explosion through their extensive scrub removal work. This has

been incredibly hard work, removing tough Blackthorn scrub.
In addition, the woodlands have begun to be thinned, no mean feat, and this has already has

dramatically opened up the woodland floor, increasing the amount of both scrub floristic
diversity and also makes the site feel safer for visitors. The floristic diversity has been
supplemented by the planting of hundreds of wildflower bulbs on the woodland floor, as well

as the spreading of wildflower seeds around the site.

Haig
Following funding from HLF, the site has been improved through 12,000 native bulbs being
planted, 4.5kg of native wildflower seeds sown and 1,300 native plug plants planted - all

done by volunteers and local schools. Coastal heath was encouraged with seeding and
planting, spring bulbs for early nectar and increasing sward diversity with seeding and
planting as well as a commitment to ongoing favourable management of these areas for the

next 10 years, which is a late cut and collect in September.
Last year saw a concerted effort to start formal recording on site with three national surveys
to tie in with ‘every flower counts’ surveys from Plant life in May and August, with the focus

on creating nectar scores for grasslands. However, the recording sheets were adapted to
also measure vegetation height and percentage cover of different species as well with over

100 m square quadrats recorded in total.

Langdon Lake and Meadows

The scrub islands in top meadows are continued to be heavily thinned to minimise the scrub
regrowth. This has been working well in previous years and the first island cleared has just

started to regenerate on a smaller scale.
The top meadow has had two years of tight cutting and the scrub has been hit hard and
regrowth has been considerably less. The grazing has also helped to minimise this regrowth
whiles also keeping the grass short. This has resulted in increase of wildflowers, which are

no longer being smothered by the scrub. We are awaiting cows to come in August to get the
grass down before this year’s cut.

The lake has had a large chunk de-silted removing all the debris from around the inflow and
outflow and burying it into a pit dug close by. The silt pit needed to dry and as a result the
whole area and paths at that end of the lake was closed. We have just reopened the paths