Funding to improve public access to Dartmoor hay meadows

Devon Wildlife Trust is today celebrating the news that it has received a £13,340.00 funding award from SITA Trust for its project "Meadows for Everyone".

Hay meadows are one of England’s rarest habitats. On Dartmoor, after many years of decline, there are now hopes that these spectacularly colourful landscape features could be on the verge of a real renaissance.

A Heritage Lottery Fund project is promoting better management for surviving meadows, and a number of owners are cooperating to establish new flowering grasslands on private land.

The Meadows for Everyone project will complement these efforts by providing full public access to a swathe of restored meadows in one of the most popular areas of the moor.

Bellever Moor and Meadows, Devon Wildlife Trust’s new Dartmoor nature reserve, includes 40 hectares of enclosed fields that are ripe for restoration but that are currently inaccessible to the public. The project will create a network of spectacular flowering hay meadows, linked by a circular walking route to some of the most fascinating features of the National Park – including tors, ancient monuments and the beautiful East Dart River.

Bellever Moor and Meadows is situated in the heart of Dartmoor, with stunning views across the moorland. However, this remote-feeling site sits close to the well-visited Bellever Forest, the Forestry Commission site featuring a car park and walking trails.

That means there is already an audience of walkers and nature-lovers who could enjoy exploring the wildflower-rich landscapes of this new DWT nature reserve. But in Devon Wildlife Trust’s experience, an expanse of meadows requires something to encourage visitors to feel they are permitted to explore.

SITA Trust’s “Accessing Nature” grant will fund new gateways, way-markers, paths and signs, providing a trail through the meadows and linking them to nearby bronze-age monuments, tors and woodlands. For the first time in recent history, local people and visitors to the National Park will be able to enjoy easy, unrestricted access to flowering Dartmoor hay meadows.

“We’re really excited to have this opportunity to bring Bellever’s wildflower meadows back to their full glory” said Ian Chadwick, Devon Wildlife Trust’s Nature Reserves Officer for this site. “Thanks to SITA Trust, everyone who loves these colourful habitats will be able enjoy close-up views of the richly varied wildlife that is sure to recolonise the nature reserve over the coming years”.

Marianne Ivin of SITA Trust added: “This is another wonderful project funded through our Accessing Nature fund. Being able to open up new areas of the site to allow the public to gain access to some beautiful wildflower meadows is very exciting for us to be part of. SITA Trust provides grants through the Landfill Communities Fund. This important source of funding has been available since 1997 and has provided such worthy projects with more than £1.4 billion”.