From machair to meadows: exploring the vital role of grasslands with Plantlife

Discover the importance of Scotland's grasslands with our guest Jo Riggall, a Grassland Advocacy Officer from Plantlife. She highlights the fascinating range of grasslands and explains how these ecosystems are paramount for biodiversity, climate resilience, agriculture, and our mental and physical well-being.

You'll also gain an insight into the unique machair habitat exclusive to parts of Scotland and Ireland, and understand the pressing need to preserve this natural wonder.

With practical tips ranging from participating in No Mow May to creating wildlife-friendly gardens, you'll find plenty of ways to support local biodiversity. Tune in, get inspired, and take action to preserve Scotland's precious grasslands!
 

More information:

Plantlife Scotland
Plantlife's #NoMowMay movement
Volunteer with Plantlife and sign up for their newsletter
Plantlife's #WaxcapWatch app
Plantlife - Incredible grasslands
NatureScot - machair

Transcript:

Kirstin: 

Hi and welcome to Make Space for Nature from NatureScot, the podcast that celebrates Scotland's nature, landscapes and species. I'm Kirstin Guthrie, and in each episode, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who share their expertise and passion for the natural world. In this episode, Tim Hancox and I chat to Jo Riggall, a grassland advocacy officer with Plantlife about the importance of grasslands. We hear about the variety and vulnerability of this habitat, as well as the importance of Machair, a unique grassland found only on the west facing shores of Scotland and Ireland. Jo also highlights what we can all do to help grasslands, an often overlooked yet vital natural environment. 

So hi Jo, welcome to the podcast, thanks so much for joining us today. Could you tell us a bit about yourself, your role and what Plantlife does please? 

Jo: 

Yeah, sure. It's great to be here. So starting with Plantlife, we're a global charity, and we're working to protect, restore, but also really importantly, to celebrate wild plants and fungi. And this is really vital work, particularly at the moment, because two in five plant species are sadly at risk of extinction. And so we work with a huge range of people trying to inspire and influence landowners, land managers, public, private bodies, governments, and local communities right across Scotland, but also in England and Wales. And so my role within the Plantlife ecosystem is as the Grassland Advocacy Officer. So this really is about trying to influence government policies to enable grasslands to thrive. 

Kirstin: 

Great. And, we wanted to chat to you about that habitat, perhaps taken for granted by many, but, it's vital for us all from producing our food to helping fight climate change, grasslands, can you explain what we mean by grasslands, please?

Jo: 

Of course, it could be actually quite tricky to define and there's lots of different terminology at different levels of detail and it's used for different purposes. But really, at the crux, it's open habitats. We've got a range of grasses, flowering plants and fungi species. And grasslands can be farmlands, they can be meadows or grazing pastures for livestock. They can also be on the coast and grazed quite short. And you can see them in parks as maybe community meadows and our road verges that are speckled with loads and loads of wildflowers. However, not all grass is equal and Plantlife Scotland is really trying to support nature, rich grasslands. And these can be abundant in wild plants and fungi and really just thriving hotspots of biodiversity. And as you mentioned, they could also sequester and store carbon, help mitigate flooding, contribute to cleaner air and water, and as part of a farm business, they can produce food. So I like to call them the ultimate multitaskers. But conversely, if you're thinking maybe about grasslands as almost a spectrum, at the other end, you've got grassland that is more like monoculture, and it's often managed with loads and loads of fertiliser, it's quite species poor, and it's providing very few of these fabulous benefits that I just mentioned that nature rich grasslands can provide us with. And actually, just to go into a few common terms I won't bore you with all of the details, but this might be helpful. So nature rich grasslands you can also use the word species rich grasslands. These are the gold dust grasslands where they've got a really high diversity of native wildflowers and grasslands. And they've actually co-evolved with traditional farming methods over thousands of years, which is incredible to think about. Then you can talk about semi-natural grassland, and this really denotes the management because they require some form of cutting and or grazing to prevent succession to scrubland. So humans do have a role to play in their management, and that's why they're semi-naturaled. Improved grasslands, these have been agriculturally managed, for example, through fertiliser, ploughing, reseeding, and I know we're going to dwell on this a bit later, but machair is a type of gorgeous, nature rich grassland that's really unique to the north west of Scotland and to Ireland.

Tim: 

Hi Jo, that's so interesting. And it sounds like there's quite a wide range of grassland type habitats. Could you let us know what the majority of them in Scotland are used for? 

Jo: 

Yeah, of course. And actually, when you think of Scotland, it's quite funny because often people don't equate Scotland with grasslands. They are more likely to think of peatland or maybe craggy mountains, but over a third of Scotland's land is covered by grassland. However, the majority of this grassland is that agriculturally improved grassland I mentioned, which has little value for nature. And then you've got maybe slightly less is the more semi natural grassland that provides more benefits and is better for nature. And when you look at the sum of Scotland's land that's used for agriculture, this includes arable land, grass and livestock, then grasslands are quite a chunk, they cover one fifth of Scotland's agricultural land. And just thinking about the types of farms that you might see. So if you were to take a walk on farms in the upland areas, then you'd mainly see cattle and sheep, because they can often cope better with the harsher climes than crops can. And so I think it's really safe to say that livestock farming on grassland is a really vital part of Scotland's rural economy. 

Tim: 

And as far as the state that they're in, could you let us know how they're doing in Scotland at the moment, we know with climate change that a lot of things are struggling at the moment so how are the grasslands doing? 

Jo: 

It's quite a sad tale really not wanting to bring anyone down, but there have actually been huge losses of nature rich grasslands since the second world war, primarily, and this is right across the UK that you can see this trend. Mainly after the Second World War, you saw government policies that incentivised huge increases in food production, which meant ploughing up, fertilising vast tracts of meadows and grasslands. And it's only when you look back now that you actually see how destructive this has been. But there's also pressure on grasslands. They're facing pressures from all fronts. So there's nitrogen pollution that can be really harmful, as well as inappropriate development and inappropriate tree planting, sadly. But there are a couple of trends I can mention that are specific to Scotland. Some studies have found that actually the species richness in particular types of grassland in Scotland has declined. And this is a worrying trend because what it indicates is that the overall health of these grassland habitats is being harmed. And this has a knock-on effect because it puts plants, fungi, and other wildlife who make these grasslands their home, puts them at risk. And so for example, you can look at the evocatively named moonwort plant, or there's also the globeflower. These plants, which depend on grasslands, are unfortunately struggling. And so what really needs to happen is all this kind of agricultural land. There needs to be a way to help farmers and crofters maintain the delicate and really complex functions and relationships within nature rich grasslands because they require quite precise cutting and or grazing regimes with little or no fertiliser. And what that does is it keeps the soil fertility low, which actually these grasslands love. And another really important part of Scotland's natural heritage, which I need to mention, are Sites of Special Scientific Interest. However, sadly, another sad story, these protected areas are not necessarily all healthy. And when you look at grasslands, and you compare the other SSSIs, these protected site features, actually grasslands had the second lowest proportion of features in favourable conditions. So again, what it really means is lots of these grassland sites that are supposed to be protected are actually really struggling. And so amongst the pressures facing all SSSIs, when you look at them, invasive species and overgrazing made up the greatest proportion of pressures. And both of these pressures threaten nature rich grasslands in particular. So as I mentioned, they're really facing pressures from all sides. And I think what it means is there's definitely lots more work for us all to do for Scotland's fabulous grasslands.

Kirstin: 

Yeah, that's really interesting, that the non-native invasive species that seem to have such a negative effect actually. And we do have a special type of grassland in Scotland that you mentioned, Machair. And I've seen it myself, it's really beautiful to see. Can you tell us a bit more about this and why it's so important?

Jo: 

Of course, and it's so good that you've seen it yourself. It really makes a difference actually seeing it in the flesh as it were. But machair is really a blend of a unique interaction between sea, weather, land, and traditional crafting techniques. And it's a really highly floristically diverse type of grassland. This machair and other types of nature rich grassland you can see across Scotland are often maintained by this continued crofting or quite sensitive farming. And it's a really, I think it's an intrinsic part of Scotland's, in particular, crofting heritage. So I'm not sure where you saw the machair, but I know that it can be found along the west coast coastlines of Scotland and the Gaelic word, I believe, means fertile or low lying grassy plain, which I think fits really neatly. And it also supports super important wildlife, such as the really rare great yellow bumblebee. So I don't know if you managed to spot that as well. 

Kirstin: 

No, sadly, I didn't spot the bumblebee, but yeah, it was definitely northwest of  Scotland that we spotted and it just looks so unusual as well. It's just absolutely stunning next to, right next to the coast. But yeah, Plantlife recently published a report on machair called ‘Machair to Meadows, making the most of Scotland's grasslands’, and it makes recommendations as to what action needs to be taken to help our grasslands. Could you take us through some of these, please? 

Jo: 

I think it's fair to say that unfortunately nature rich grasslands are being hugely undervalued and actually neglected in policy and practice. Just look at some of the high-profile initiatives which are fantastic to help manage and restore woodland and peatland but sadly nature rich grasslands just don't get the same attention and so this means that the glorious grassland jigsaw in Scotland is being eaten away piece by piece. But we're trying to be positive here in Plantlife, what can be done. We think that the Scottish government has a really important role and can take a strategic approach in order to protect and restore and create nature rich grassland. Because actually with action, then, The Scottish Government can help meet societal needs, make sure grassland is providing all those benefits I've mentioned and with joined up policy making this can be achieved. So what we're hoping for is urgent protection of existing nature rich grasslands and actually recognition that they can be a really important nature based solution to climate change. We do believe that farmers, crofters and landowners need appropriate financial and advisory support in manage this, this national asset that I've mentioned, plus you've got private and public grassland green space managers, and they can play a really important role in maintaining and piecing back together this jigsaw. For example, they can manage road verges for biodiversity. And finally, just to touch on the network of protected sites that we previously mentioned. I think investment in the monitoring of these protected sites is really important to ensure that they are being monitored, we do know what's going on with their condition and action to restore and maintain them can be undertaken.

Tim: 

Thanks, Jo. I think you've touched on this a little bit already, but when people think about climate change, they don't necessarily think about grasslands first. But could you tell us more about what impacts climate change is having on Scotland's grasslands and also how grasslands might even be yet another one of the nature-based solutions that might help us to recover or fight the impact of climate change?

Jo: 

Like many habitats and species in Scotland, the risk of climate change is incredibly acute for grasslands. And in fact, Plantlife and the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, plus some other partners last year, released a report where they were looking at the risk of climate exchange exposure on a number of habitats across the UK. And they found that some of the most exposed semi-natural habitats were some types of grasslands, so they are facing a risk. There is a positive note to this because as I think you, you mentioned grasslands are an undervalued and overlooked nature-based solution to climate change. And what that means is they have a really important role to play in helping mitigate the impacts of climate change but also helping us adapt to them as well. For example, you can think about really deep, complex rooting systems of some of these grassland plant communities, that means that you can draw carbon down deep into their soil and store it securely in their undisturbed soils. And studies have found that the soils of nature rich grassland, can actually store more soil organic carbon per hectare than the equivalent intensively managed grassland or cropland. And that's because one of the reasons is that healthy soils are full of ecosystem engineers like earthworms and also mycorrhizal fungi, and these help facilitate that carbon storage and touching on healthy soils that means that these grasslands can help mitigate extreme weather events, taking floodplain meadows as a really good example. They've got deep alluvial soils, and when there's flooding, that means they can help store and slow the flow of the floodwater. So I think what we're looking at is untapped potential, and there's potential for grasslands in Scotland to store more soil carbon and that's with some changes in management that helps boost their the species richness in the grasslands and you can do that by, for example, using grazing techniques like rotational grazing, stopping fertiliser use or reducing it. And by the way, this management could also reduce a farm's overall greenhouse emission plus you, the farmer can save costs and on inputs like fertiliser. So I would call that a win for climate, a win for nature and a win for the farmer. 

Kirstin: 

Brilliant. So many benefits for climate change, but also plenty of benefits to us as individuals, what impact do grasslands have on our lives and on our health and wellbeing? Why are they so important? 

Jo: 

One of the ways perhaps lots of people are connected to grasslands and might not realise it is through food that some people might eat, so meat and dairy. And when we're looking at grasslands on farmland, if they are, nature rich grasslands are inherently productive farmland because to help maintain that beautiful floristic fungal diversity, you actually do need livestock to graze them. And that in turn provides a wide range of nutrients for the livestock who are grazing on these different plant species. And there's evidence that this grassland variety of forage for the livestock and this diversity of the plants that can reduce the needs for antibiotics and worming medicine and you're getting healthier livestock and there's also research out there that's found they can produce healthier meat and dairy products if they've grazed on pasture like this. And actually looking at a farm as well, I think I mentioned that, these kind of low impact, low fertiliser systems they help nature rich grasslands thrive, but they also reduce their agricultural runoff and water pollution that can go from soils that have been over fertilised, really unhealthy compacted soils and run into river systems. So it's a real benefit there. And just thinking, taking a moment to think about the pure aesthetic, beauty and sensory experience of being in meadows, this can really enhance people's health and wellbeing. And I know that they're just so uplifting to be in. And there's been a relatively recent study, I think, that's found, people in Scotland really value the benefits of being in nature. It found over four fifths of adults in Scotland visited the outdoors for recreation within a year. And they also have high levels of concerns about the natural environment. And I think there's a real link, if people are able to access beautiful, healthy, nature rich places, then they are more likely to care about them and in turn want to do something to protect them. From the same patch of nature rich grasslands, we receive all these benefits. You could almost describe them as multifunctional pieces of land. And just, yeah, with the right strategic approach from the Scottish government, grasslands could be a huge national asset to help them meet their targets on health and being, but also nature recovery, climate, sustainable farming.

Kirstin: 

Wow. So there are so many benefits as you say, but we've heard about the negative side of things and how the impact of climate change and the state of some of our grasslands isn't as we would like. But, you, you said it yourself, we want to do more. We love spending time in nature and we want to do more. So what can our listeners do to help this important habitat? 

Jo: 

I think it's really important that people do feel like they can help and they are empowered to make a difference and they definitely can. So firstly, I would say, please do look at Plantlife Scotland's website. We've got lots of information on there. But just to mention a few initiatives you might have heard of Plantlife's No Mow May. which happens in May, and it's basically an introductory step to getting people to think about relaxing the mowing of their lawn, continuing that into June, maybe throughout summer, and just getting involved in some more wildlife friendly gardening. There's also lots of opportunities to volunteer with Plantlife Scotland. So please do look at our website, and there you can sign up for our newsletter. And we're entering the autumn, which is an exciting time. And we have the Waxcap watch app and Waxcaps, if you don't know, are an incredible array of different types of fungi that are often shiny and colourful and can be found in grasslands. So you can download that app and record your sightings. You don't have to be an expert. You can just do it based on the colour of the fungi that you see, but that's really important data for us to collect. And we'd love to see people using the app. And finally there are local councils, local initiatives who are reducing their mowing frequency and boosting biodiversity. So please do support councils who are doing that because it's brilliant work to see. 

Kirstin: 

That's brilliant. Thank you for sharing those tips. I'll certainly make sure that there's a list of links on the podcast page. And even that Waxcap watch, that sounds like a great app. You go everywhere just now and there seems to be fungi left, right and centre. It's amazing to see. I absolutely love it. Yeah, thanks for sharing those top tips with us. 

Tim: 

Thanks so much, Jo. And thank you for coming on. That's been really interesting. And grasslands, so rich in, in biodiversity and opportunities to help us with climate change. And. We'll have to get out and see some more of, I'm not even going to try and say it. Mahe? Mahe?

Kirstin: 

Machair!

Tim: 

Machair! I’ll become Scottish one day. I'll do my best. But thank you so much, Jo. And, yeah we're heading into the colder times now but it's always good to remember not to mow too often, to make sure there's lots of space for life within your gardens, and definitely don't put down Astro. Love the grass!

Kirstin: 

Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying Make Space for Nature, please follow it on your podcast app and leave a review or rating. We'd also love you to tell more people about the series. For more ways to connect with and help protect Scotland's natural world, go to nature.scot.