Merry Christmas to all our followers, see you on the other side 🎄☃️

New grassland toolkit! Realising Grassland Potential: An Ecosystem Service Toolkit for Farmers' is a free toolkit designed to help increase understanding of nature markets and their potential to support grassland restoration. Access it here: url.td/7F7E1 and read more here: tinyurl.com/2s3v3w2e

It's #worldsoilday 🥳Floodplain meadow soils are ecosystem service superheros. Watch Professor David Gowing's video on floodplain meadow soils here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIki... Learn more about floodplain meadow soils in the OU's FREE course here: www.open.edu/openlearn/na...

As part of tiny.cc/azov001 we spent a day at @bbowt.bsky.social reserve Meadow Farm assesing soils to determine suitability for floodplain meadow restoration. Some of the techniques demonstrate just how much water these very well-structured soils can hold, reducing overland flooding.

A pleasure to meet @alasdairallanmsp.bsky.social in the Scottish Parliament today to discuss our research work on the Outer Hebrides on the threatened Oceanic Wet Grasslands bit.ly/43FpLML. Hopefully we have made him as keen as we are to protect and conserve these uniquely Scottish habitats!

PhD opportunity 👇 Come and work with our awesome team to explore whether our understanding of niche segregation can be harnessed to predict the response of vegetation to alterations in hydrological regimes that are likely to result from global change. 🌱 centa.ac.uk/studentship/...

theconversation.com/how-the-nati... Lovely article from @artandecology.bsky.social on our recent joint project with @nationaltrust.org.uk, looking at how how art and visual culture can help us better understand and engage audiences with meadow restoration 🥰🌱 Read it here: tinyurl.com/39r2kkk2

Floodplain meadows are rich both in fungi and carbon stored in the soil. Our co-created research project looks at fungal communities in meadows influence long-term sequestration, and whether we can seed meadows with the right fungi to store even more! 🍄 university.open.ac.uk/stem/environ...

As we celebrate our amazing fungi today take 5 minutes to top up your knowledge with this BBC Ideas video written in partnership with our own FMP Director Professor David Gowing – top facts to make you the fun-guy at parties! 🤪🍄 www.bbc.co.uk/videos/czrgg...

Floodplain meadows are rich in fungi & carbon stored in the soil. We’re piloting research following a co-creating project that identified fungi as an area to explore. Do fungal communities living on the meadows have an active influence on this incredible long term sequestration? #UKFungusDay #fungi

As we celebrate our amazing fungi on #UKFungusDay take 5 minutes to top up your knowledge with this BBC Ideas video written in partnership with our own FMP Director Professor David Gowing. Top facts to make you the fun-guy at parties..! bit.ly/3Iu5NNN #fungi #fungus @openuniversity.bsky.social

Our friends over at Herefordshire Meadows Group have been busy bees this summer 🌱💪. See what they've been up to here: tinyurl.com/59s756yf

We're very pleased to have contributed data to this great piece of work 😁🌱

The 2026 River Restoration Centre Conference call for abstracts is now open. There are now just 3 weeks until the October 16th deadline, don't miss out! More here: www.therrc.co.uk/rrc-conferen...

Our #rivers are in crisis – polluted & stripped of their natural features. We’re calling on the government to urgently make #SpaceForWater & support a network of nature-rich river corridors including meadows. Sign the petition and help restore our rivers: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

A fantastic opportunity to work with one of our Steering Group members @nationaltrust.org.uk - so much potential, not only for the restoration of nature rich floodplains, but also for using their wonderful collections to bring the story of the role and value of this precious habitat to life!

The joys of pressing flowers! Our own Director, Professor David Gowing curates how science & art can be combined in this short film co-produced by OU & BBC, with the One Show. A Pressing Matter aired on Tuesday 12th August at 7pm on BBC One & will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer. bit.ly/3HONXVg

And that's a wrap for fieldwork across @nationaltrust.org.uk sites on our joint TREASURE project. We've been from Norfolk to Dorset to Cumbria and everywhere in-between. This autumn we'll be using the data collected to provide restoration and management advice, but now it's time for a lie down! 😴

This #NationalMeadowsDay, we’re backing @Plantlife in their urgent call to protect what’s left of our irreplaceable meadows. But we need your help! These vital ecosystems cannot simply be recreated. 📖 Learn about Irreplaceable Habitats and join us here: lnkd.in/edhij8Pv joinplantlife.org/4ecU2q8

🥵 Too hot out in the sun botanising today. Instead, I spent a lovely day focused on Snake’s-head Fritillaries at @floodplainmead.bsky.social craft workshop in Cricklade. Results are not too shabby given my usually poor artistic skills. 😃 Thank you to Alice, Emma and Olivia.

One of my favourite floodplain meadow plants - Pepper Saxifrage Silaum silaus. For it's amazing cinnamony smell of leaves and fruits mostly. And a good insect nectar source, like most Apiaceae. @floodplainmead.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Snakes-head fritillaries are a special joy with floodplain meadows & one we celebrated with an art project this week in Cricklade led by Alice Walker. On #NationalMeadowsDay lets commit to greater protection and awareness of the potential for grasslands such as floodplain meadows can bring.

Celebrating the glories of Cumbrian and Lancashire floodplain meadows for #NationalMeadowsDay! We paid a visit to these beauties with the FMP Ambassadors floodplainmeadows.org.uk/index.php/ab.... So much more potential for this valuable landscape in the northwest and throughout the UK.

Visited Somerford Mead, a recreated (from arable) floodplain haymeadow nr Oxford. Looking good, but surprised to see that even here the Rough Hawksbeard Crepis biennis (last photo) is gaining ground as it is in all dry verges & meadows locally @floodplainmead.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Lovely to see floodplain meadows celebrated by senior advocacy stakeholders. Let's work together to restore floodplain meadows at a landscape scale 🥰

Wonderful to visit Achurch Meadow with colleagues from Floodplain Meadow Partnership, Natural England & Environment Agency. Vivid reminder of the HUGE importance of such places, for biodiversity, clean rivers, flood storage, carbon & more. 99% is gone, but massive opportunities for restoration.

A great morning hosting ‪‪@tonyjuniper.bsky.social‬ & Alan Lovell Chair of the Environment Agency at Achurch Meadow, a wonderful example of floodplain meadow in Northamptonshire. Looking forward to working together to realise potential of this special habitat on a greater scale. Thanks to Kevin too!

As part of the #SpeciesOnTheEdge #OuterHebrides Wildlife Festival, join us online on 25th June 18:30 to hear about our research on a uniquely Scottish ecosystem, the astonishingly species-rich Oceanic wet grasslands. Sign up here: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Beautiful great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) for #wildflowerwednesday Did you know this, classic indicator of floodplain meadows has roots up to 2m deep? Read more here: floodplainmeadows.org.uk/about-meadow...

Our summer intern David has been hard at work learning his rush species today. Left to right: Compact, soft, and hard rush. We also had some hybrid material but I let him off because I'm nice like that 😅

As part of the #SpeciesOnTheEdge #OuterHebrides Wildlife Festival, join us online on 25th June 18:30 to hear about our research on a uniquely Scottish ecosystem, the astonishingly species-rich Oceanic wet grasslands. Sign up here: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Today's merry band learning about floodplain meadow soils, hydrology, vegetation,and management are @nationaltrust.org.uk staff. Part of our TREASURE project, helping to raise the profile of floodplain meadows, share best practice and highlight restoration opportunities. + bonus tansy beetle 🪲😍.

I've been really lucky to be working on a project with @nationaltrust.org.uk and @floodplainmead.bsky.social on the role that art can play in promoting floodplain meadows restoration. Short film on its way...

Day 2 of training @naturalengland advisors covered assessing restoration potential/eligibility for the floodplain meadow CS option we helped develop. We also saw Long Mead's plug planting programme, a fantastic volunteer project producing floodplain meadow species for restoration projects 😍🌱

Day 1 of our training for @naturalengland staff at Long Mead in Oxfordshire. We've covered floodplain meadow soils, hydrology, vegetation, and heard about restoration techniques from the wonderful Catriona Bass who been instrumental in restoring large areas of species rich meadow along the Thames 🥰

Whilst some are busy in the field, others in the team presented the TREASURE project at the Open Societal Challenges Showcase event. Great to meet folk & encourage them to have a go at making pipe cleaner species found on the meadows! @openuniversity.bsky.social ‬ @nationaltrust.org.uk

Join us on midsummers day for a Midsummer Meadows Gathering 2pm-6pm Bartonsham Meadows Hereford with A&H Common Lands and Herefordshire Wildlife Trust. More info here floodplainmeadows.org.uk/keep-updated...

Highlights of week one of our TREASURE project with @nationaltrust.org.uk. Floodplain meadow indicator species pepper saxifrage and meadow rue hanging on in there in some fairly agriculturally improved grasslands, hinting at their former glory. Botanising in the rain and chalk in the soil profile ☺️

Today's @nationaltrust TREASURE: Oenanthe pimpinelloides, mottles soil with a teeny tiny Ramshorn snail and survey helper 🌱🐌🐎

A good blog from @linesmartin.bsky.social for @naturalengland.bsky.social on the benefits of nature-friendly farming 🐄🌱🐝 @nffn.bsky.social have other excellent case studies on their website e.g. this one on managing floodplain meadows! @floodplainmead.bsky.social www.nffn.org.uk/farmer-stori...

Braving the rain at Bathampton Meadows today. Part of a project with our friends @nationaltrust.org.uk looking at potential for restoring species-rich floodplain meadows across their estate. And Day 1 for our summer intern, David who discovered grass ID isn't impossible and he needs new boots 😂🥾

Join us at Bartonsham Meadows on Friday 9th May for a guided walk and talk on floodplain meadow management. Book on Eventbright: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/restoring-...

Counting fritillaries + eating cake = a great day at North Meadow NNR! 🍰🌷 Along with @naturalengland.bsky.social we've been monitoring the UK’s biggest population here since the 1970s. Read more about this iconic flower in our joint paper with @bsbibotany.bsky.social: bit.ly/4lLuPqt :)

We've produced a free course on floodplain meadows on the OU's Open Learn platform @anglianwater.bsky.social

FMP are one of 50 Nature & farming groups united in calling for Government to protect the nature-friendly farming budget. Cuts could scupper the vital work of farmers trying to restore soils, boost nature & grow healthy food. Read the press release here: www.wcl.org.uk/farming-and-...

📢New policy brief with partners Pasture For Life: Research funding should prioritise scientists and livestock farmers working more closely together on co-designed, co-delivered farm-level research projects 👩‍🌾🧑‍🔬🐮 Full story 👇 www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/more-fu...

Happy International Women's Day to all the amazing women working in STEM and conservation 🥰 FMP are lucky to have a highly skilled team of wonderful women all working together for our precious floodplain meadows. Find out more about the team here: floodplainmeadows.org.uk/index.php/ab... #IWD2025

Applied meadow management course coming up via CIEEM, led by Rachel Remnant, one of our wonderful floodplain meadow ambassadors: events.cieem.net/Events/Event...

Grasslands like floodplain meadows are vital for food, carbon storage, water management, wildlife and more. Better coordination from Government can unlock their potential. That's why we’re joining @plantlifeuk.bsky.social uk.bsky.social, NNFN and partners in calling for a Grassland Taskforce.