RESTORATION of degraded meadows to enhance the natural environment and provide an essential habitat for our pollinators have been recognised in this year’s annual Campaign for National Parks Park Protector of the Year Award.

The Yorkshire Dales Hay Time project is one of five innovative and important conservation, heritage and amenity projects in the running for the Campaign for National Parks’ prestigious annual Park Protector Award, sponsored by the Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust (RHCT)

It has been shortlisted following judging from a total of 15 projects. The winning entry – to be announced shortly - will receive £2,000 at a parliamentary reception in London on October 21.

Fiona Howie, Campaign for National Parks chief executive, said she was delighted by the variety and impressed with the quality of projects entered this year: “We have had some excellent, innovative projects which have shown how working in partnership with others can have a real and lasting positive impact on communities across our National Parks.”

Judge Jeremy Colls from award sponsors Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust, added he was pleased with the range of projects nominated this year: “These are generally strong projects which reflect well on the diversity and utility of work within the national parks. Hay Time is restoring one of the most missed features of our rural environment.”

Northern upland wildflowers and grasses that are characteristic of this area have been reintroduced into around 450 hectares of degraded meadows in the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland over the past nine years thanks to the Hay Time project, run by the Clapham-based charity Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT).

The initiative has raised awareness of the urgent need to protect and restore the few remaining traditional wildflower hay meadows and their importance for upland farming, pollinating insects and other native wildlife, landscape and climate change mitigation.

Project officer Tanya St Pierre has supported farmers in accessing agri-environment funding and engaged local communities through meadow and bumble bee themed educational events and activities for residents, visitors and school children.

She said: “We are thrilled that Hay Time has been shortlisted for this prestigious award. The Yorkshire Dales contain about a sixth of the UK’s remaining upland hay meadow – one of the scarcest and most threatened habitats in Europe. The Hay Time project is helping to save this precious part of our rural and cultural heritage for future generations, and it is wonderful to have this work acknowledged.”