Careful grassland management by Conwy County Borough Council has resulted in a real success story in the grounds of the North Wales Police Headquarters and the Council’s Civic Offices in Colwyn Bay.
Incredibly, this spring and early summer there were five different species of orchid growing there, including the scarce bee orchid which has evolved to look like a female bee; and the pyramidal orchid, which produces a strong scent to attract both day and night-flying moths and butterflies. The other orchid species are the broad-leaved helleborine, common twayblade and the common spotted orchid.
When the project started in 2003, the grassland held very little biodiversity or wildlife interest because it had been mowed regularly. Since then Conwy’s Parks Section, in partnership with the Countryside Service and North Wales Police, have allowed the grass to grow long in the Spring and Summer before cutting and baling it at the end of the season.
“Meadow management is really beneficial to all sorts of wildlife,” said Anne Butler, Conwy’s Biodiversity Project Officer. “Meadow flowers have a chance to flower and set seed, bees and butterflies are attracted to the grassland to pollinate the flowers and the butterflies can lay their eggs in the long grass. Although meadows used to be common in Wales, we have lost nearly all of them of them since the Second World War. The Council is keen to increase biodiversity on its land by having areas of meadow grassland and this is something that people can easily do in their own gardens too.”
Many sites across the County Borough are being managed as a Biodiversity Areas by the Council.
To download a leaflet about Biodiversity Areas please go to www.conwy.gov.uk/biodiversityareas or contact Conwy County Borough Council’s Environment Service on (01492) 575337.
