The winter 2013 edition of The Rawcliffe Resident, the newsletter of Rawcliffe Parish Council contains a little piece about Rawcliffe Meadows and its Friends group, the text of which is below. Our thanks go to the Parish Councillors and their Clerk for giving us space in a document that goes out to everyone in the Parish. Many of them possibly use Rawcliffe Meadows but may be unaware of its national importance, along with its website, which we think they should be aware of.

Who knows, we may also recruit a few more Friends?

Rawcliffe Meadows – A Precious Local Area for You to Enjoy

Rawcliffe Meadows in 2013 – Nothing is ever as quiet as it seems on Rawcliffe Meadows! As the site is in its third decade of Countryside Stewardship there is always a lot of management to do to comply with Natural England’s prescriptions. The Cornfield Buffer must be weeded, sown and cut to encourage birds. The meadows need to be cut and grazed to bring back wild flowers and the various other compart-ments, such as the three copses, accord-ed treatment to encourage birds, mam-mals and invertebrates.

Given the weather in 2012 this will be no mean feat. In addition, there were several bursts of the York-shire Water (YW) rising main between Clifton Hospital and the Treat-ment Works causing much damage, which we are trying to remedy with their assistance, but the weather hasn’t helped there either.

The site is a major one for the nationally very rare Tansy Leaf beetle, so much work is constantly being done to secure our increasing population of these. So if signs request people to keep out of areas of the site please observe them, they are there for a reason.

Additional information and updates are on our website – https://rawcliffemeadows.wordpress.com/ or contact Judi Sutton on 691943.

Your help is always appreciated.