National Park Volunteers have been involved in the management of important grasslands in the North York Moors for many years. Without grazing by stock, necessary management often includes strimming and raking the sites after the flowers have seeded and died back as well as autumn/winter scrub control. Because of these timings, most of the Volunteers don’t get the opportunity to see the ultimate results of their hard work eight or nine months later i.e. a show of wild flowers.
So in July, Jo and Dawn from the National Park’s Volunteer Service organised a trip out for Volunteers to have a look at some of the managed sites and see the flowers of their labours. They went to Sutton Bank, two nearby disused limestone quarry sites and another site on the edge of Pry Rigg Plantation.
Hopefully the wildflowers will have provided further inspiration to keep the Volunteers going through potentially wetter and colder months to come.