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Stone Meadows

Local Nature Reserve

| Stone LNR Management Plan 2010-2014  |
| Gallery 1 - 2002 | Gallery 2 - 2004 | Gallery 3 - 2005 |
| Friends of Stone Meadows Newsletter Spring 2007 |

Stone Meadows Local Nature Reserve is made up of three separate meadows next to the river Trent as it flows past Stone.

Crown Meadow

Crown Meadow is already a well-known and well-used wildlife site at the heart of Stone. In partnership with Stone Town Council we are aiming to make a number of enhancements to the meadow which will increase its wildlife value and improve access for local residents. Firstly, during early September two short sections of riverbank will be re-profiling. The soil produced by this work will be used to landscape the edges of the raised 'picnic area'. We are then planning to install an all-ability, all-weather footpath so that all local residents will be able to use the site throughout the year. The path will be made from durable, compacted, crushed stone. Wherever possible we will simply re-surface existing desire lines around the meadow so that habitat disturbance is minimised. We also hope to improve access to the meadow from Stafford Road and are investigating options to replace the current sets of steps. Finally, two Black Poplars will be planted on the meadow. The Black Poplar is a rare tree which naturally grows close to rivers and in other wet areas.

Northern Meadows

The first project that we are planning for these meadows is the installation of a barn owl box. The un-grazed verges on the fringes of this site would provide an excellent hunting ground for barn owls. The Staffordshire Barn Owl group will provide advice on the best possible location for the box. Then, during the coming winter, a section of old 'gappy' hedgerow on the field to the south of the railway line will be restored. A mixture of native saplings will be planted between the remaining hawthorn trees and stock-proof fencing will then be installed around the hedge to prevent cattle from grazing the new plants.

Southern Meadow

This meadow has been selected by the OnTrent project as a 'demonstration site' to showcase sustainable management of riverside meadows to farmers and communities along the Trent. OnTrent is a partnership that aims to promote the conservation and landscape value of the River Trent corridor. As a result of funding from the OnTrent project and the Environment Agency we will be able to carry out a number of projects during the coming year all of which will benefit local wildlife:

• A five year management plan is currently being drawn up for the site. This will detail the management that is required to maintain and further enhance the wildlife value of the meadow.
• A Barn owl box has been constructed and will be installed on the site in the near future. There are a number of records of barn owls in the countryside around Stone and hope to encourage a pair of these beautiful birds to nest on this meadow.
• The area of wet woodland in the south west corner of the meadow will be re-fenced.
• Two sections of riverbank on this meadow will be re-profiled. We are also investigating ways to maintain small shallow pools of water and marshy areas on the meadow throughout the year, to encourage rare birds such as lapwings and snipe to nest on the site.
• A section of hedgerow, which marks the southern perimeter of this meadow, will be restored. As with the hedgerow work on the Northern Meadow we will be planting a mix of native saplings in line with the remnant hedgerow trees and will then fence off the whole hedge to prevent grazing by cattle.
• Following advice from Stafford Borough Council's Arboricultural Officer we are planning to pollard two willows amongst the small copse of trees behind the houses on the western edge of the site. The pollarding process will ensure that the willow trees have a much longer life span than they would if they were left unmanaged. None of the poplars will be affected by this work and we are planning to plant a number of new willow saplings at the same time. The process of riverbank re-profiling involves removing 'wedge-shaped' sections of the riverbank using earth-moving machinery. This will result in much gentler slope gradients (see diagrams below).

Riverbank re-profiling on Stone Meadows

Over the past two hundred years most of the River Trent has been 'canalised'. This simply means that the river has been engineered in a way that gives it a canal-like appearance, with steep banks and a flat bed. One of the main reasons for this engineering work was the belief that the faster flows of water that resulted would reduce flooding problems. However, it is now known that fast flowing rivers can cause 'flash floods' at certain 'bottle-neck' locations such as Shrewsbury and Bewdley. The 'canalisation' process also adversely affects the diversity of habitats within a river and on its banks.

By reducing the gradients of the banks the re-profiling work will provide an opportunity for natural bank-side vegetation, such as reeds and rushes, and riverbed features, such as shingle-bars, to develop. The increased diversity of habitat will in turn benefit a variety of animal life, particularly birds and insects which will return to the area over time. The re-profiling work will be possible thanks to funding from the Environment Agency.

During the past few years riverbank re-profiling has been carried out on several sections of river in the Midlands. A local example is on Severn Trent Water farmland at Aston-by-Stone where 6 sections of the River Trent were re-profiled last year. Although the work is less than a year old there are already signs of riverbed features developing and vegetation has re-colonised the ground. Below are recent photographs of two sections of re-profiled riverbank on these meadows. On both of these photographs it is interesting to compare the steep 'canalised' banks with the much gentler slopes of the newly re-profiled sections. It is not surprising that a much greater variety of plant life is able to take root and grow on the shallow sloping banks. However, steep riverbanks do provide a home for one of Britain's most endangered mammals- the Water Vole. In recent years there have been some signs of Water Vole burrows in the banks of the River Trent in Stone. We are therefore only proposing to re-profile short sections of the river and will undertake a full water vole survey on these sections prior to any work being carried out.

For more information contact: Biodiversity Officer