Mill Farm Fencing

800m of fencing installed to allow grazing of wet meadow

Working with the landowner and using funded by the Chess Smarter Water Catchment programme, 800m of fencing and gates have been installed at Mill Farm Meadow, Chenies. This will allow controlled grazing to take place on 3½ hectares of wet meadow and help manage the vegetation growth in the bypass channel that runs alongside.

Wet meadows are wetlands where the soil is saturated for at least part of the growing season. When in good condition and managed correctly through grazing, they can provide excellent habitat for breed wading birds, such as lapwings and curlews. Their young feast on the invertebrates that live in the soft damp soils, ditches and ponds. These temporary wet areas are also important for other species such as dragonflies, water voles, amphibians and reptiles. We look forward to seeing the grazing regime reinstated at the site and positive impacts this could make to the habitat quality and species diversity.

This is the first phase of a larger project to improve both the habitat and accessibility along 1.1km of the river Chess between Latimer and Chenies. Watch this space to see how the project develops.