Evaluating the success of upland hay meadow restoration in the North Pennines, UK, using green hay transfer

1. Traditionally managed mesotrophic species-rich upland hay meadows conforming to the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) MG3b, are one of the rarest grassland types in the UK, with substantial declines in botanical diversity over the last 50 years. Intensive spring grazing, earlier cut dates and increases in soil fertility causes a decline in characteristic positive indicator species in MG3b meadows, shifting communities from species-rich MG3b, to NVC MG6 meadows, and finally to species-poor NVC MG7 meadows. 
2. The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership’s Hay Time project aimed to improve the knowledge of upland hay meadows, and to investigate the success of seed addition of key positive indicator species. A landscape-scale restoration programme was undertaken between 2006 and 2012, harvesting seed from 82 species-rich donor meadows and spreading seed onto 89 receptor meadows (2282ha). Seed was harvested as green hay, using two types of donors: an M...