It is now time to manage our wild meadows across the county borough and we have committed to scything several of our sites this year with the help of our wonderful volunteers.
But why Scythe?
You have better control over the cut to the meadow!
Being able to look at what you are cutting and avoiding any areas that are a thriving habitat. Over the past few cuts, we have found an abundance of wildlife and it is possible that many of the habitats vital to this wildlife could have been missed if using a strimmer and might not have made it through the cut. It is especially good for cutting around trees, avoiding damage from stimmers and brushcutters.
It creates less disturbance to the surrounding wildlife!
Being less noisy and not using harmful chemical-operated machinery that can pollute the area. Once the cut is completed, we can create habitat piles where we pile up the cut meadow where this will encourage a number of species to use this area. This also reduces our carbon footprint when managing a piece of land using this traditional method.
Scything is a more sociable way of cutting!
You are able to chat to your fellow scythers, making this a great volunteering event to meet new people and learn a new skill at the same time. During our scything season so far, the majority of people involved said scything is more relaxed than strimming.
We are planning to run more scything events in the next few weeks so keep an eye on the Wrexham Council Facebook page for the upcoming information. Finally, we would like to say a special thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help us scythe the meadows so far.
For further information on volunteering, feel free to contact LocalPlacesForNature@wrexham.gov.uk.
