Scything Season
Scything Season: why managing meadows in autumn is vital for local wildlife
As summer comes to an end, at the Aire Rivers Trust we are turning our attention to the important autumn and winter tasks that help care for our local rivers. One key practical task for our volunteers throughout September is managing meadows along our rivers, helping to maintain these valuable habitats after the growing season.
What are meadows?
Meadows are grassland habitats made up of a mix of grasses, wildflowers and other plants. Traditionally, the grasses and wildflowers are left to grow through spring and summer before being cut in late summer or early autumn, often for hay (Plantlife n.d.). There are many different types of meadow in the UK, from floodplain meadows to upland hay meadows. The type of meadow depends on factors such as soil type, moisture levels and altitude, and each supports its own mix of plant species.
Across Bradford and Keighley, our meadows can support species such as wild orchids, meadowsweet, ragged robin and yellow rattle. Further up the Aire Valley, in the Yorkshire Dales, you’ll find some of the last remaining traditional wildflower meadows in England, with some areas containing up to 120 species of wildflowers and grasses (YDMT n.d.).
Despite efforts by various conservation organisations to conserve our remaining areas of wildflower meadow, the UK has lost 97% of them in the last 90 years, driven by changes in farming practices, chemical fertilisers and land development.
Benefits of meadows
Our remaining meadows have an important role to play in supporting a remarkable range of wildlife. Wildflowers provide nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other pollinating insects, while grasses and taller plants offer food and shelter for animals such as voles, frogs and ground-nesting birds.
Meadows also play an important role in mitigating and adapting to climate change. They can store carbon, cycle nutrients, slow the flow of rainwater across the land and help reduce flood risk.
Managing a mosaic of meadow habitats across the Aire Valley helps create habitat corridors and stepping stones for wildlife. Connected habitats allow plants, insects, birds and mammals to move through the landscape more easily, linking rivers, woodlands, wetlands and other natural spaces.
Finally, meadows are also important spaces for people. They provide an accessible and beautiful green space where people can enjoy and connect with nature, and learn about the plants and wildlife found locally.
Wildflower meadows can be incredibly diverse: common spotted-orchid, clover and birds foot trefoil.
Where we manage meadows
At the Aire Rivers Trust, we focus our meadow management work on a small number of sites in the Aire Valley.
Firstly, we manage a floodable meadow in Baildon. This area helps to reduce the risk of flooding to homes in Bradford and Leeds. Shallow dips dug on the site can fill with water in winter, slowing the flow of water into our main river. This damp ground will allow wildflowers to flourish. To create this site, volunteers worked hard cutting hay and clearing larger plants like scrub and trees, and sowing wildflower seed. We continue to cut and rake the area each year in early autumn. We also manage a meadow within the woodland of the Damems Nature Reserve in Keighley, cutting the grass and raking it off each year at the end of summer
Why and how we manage meadows
Wildflower meadows need careful ongoing management to remain species rich, and prevent them from becoming dominated by a small number of vigorous grasses. If left entirely unmanaged, scrub and tree species may also begin to establish, changing the type of habitat present. Meanwhile, too much management can be just as damaging. If meadows are cut too frequently or at the wrong time of year, wildflowers may not have the chance to flower and set seed.
There is no single approach to managing a meadow. Different sites require different techniques, and management needs to reflect the conditions and wildlife found there. One of the most important techniques is cutting and removing the grass and vegetation at the appropriate time of year. At the Aire Rivers Trust, working with our volunteers, we usually carry out one cut in September, after the flowers have had a chance to seed. We cut the meadows using traditional scythes, maintaining a historical technique that is thousands of years old. We then remove the material and gather it into piles with hay rakes.
Baildon Floodable Meadow
Removing the cut material gradually lowers soil fertility, which can encourage a greater variety of wildflowers. Many wildflowers do best in less fertile soils, where grasses are less likely to dominate. The cut grass is left in piles at the edge of the meadow, creating safe refuges for insects and amphibians that may be sheltering there. On larger sites, we may also use an auto-scythe to help complete the work more efficiently. We may also need to manage scrub or unwanted vegetation within and around the meadow, particularly where young trees and shrubs are beginning to encroach on open grassland. We have carried out similar work at Trench Meadows in Shipley, where we helped prevent trees and scrub from spreading onto the meadow and reducing the area of open grassland.
We are always looking for new volunteers to help us with conservation tasks throughout the year. If you would like to get involved visit: www.aireriverstrust.org.uk/volunteer/
Volunteers cutting and raking the meadow in Baildon
References:
Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (2026). Wildflower meadows. Available at: https://www.ydmt.org/what-we-do/landscape-and-wildlife/wildflower-meadows (Accessed: 25 August 2026)
Plantlife (2026). How to manage a meadow. Available at: plantlife.org.uk (Accessed 25 August 2026)
