Cutting and removing grass helps wildflowers to naturally colonise the area
Meadows and mowing all good moves to encourage wildflowers
SOUTH Dublin County Council will undertake mowing and collecting operations in designated wildflower meadows across the county in coming weeks.
The work is an essential part of the council’s actions to improve habitats for pollinators, on meadows that span over 210 hectares across south Dublin.
“All wildflower meadows need management, this usually involves cutting the meadows once a year and removing all the cuttings,” the council said.
“Cutting and removing the grass reduces the nutrient levels in the soil, thus encouraging wildflowers to naturally colonise the areas.”
Not cutting the grass they said, would add to the fertility of the soil and encourage grasses to grow which out-compete the wildflowers in the seed bank.
As this work requires specialist equipment, it is carried out by agricultural contractors on behalf of the council and the by-product, grass, is used as fodder.
SDCC’s Pollinator Action Plan is based on the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, which aims to reverse declining bee populations in Ireland. More than half of Ireland’s bee species have undergone substantial declines in their numbers since the 1980s.
Two species are now extinct, and one-third of Ireland’s 98 bee species are threatened with extinction.
Six species are critically endangered, 10 are endangered and 14 are described as vulnerable.
SDCC’s Public Realm Section currently manages approximately 190 hectares as natural long flowering meadows, which will be mown in the coming weeks, and 20 hectares of short flowering meadows, designed to suit public open spaces in residential areas.
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