Why the long Grass? Grass Cutting and Biodiversity in Fingal
The ‘Local Biodiversity Action Plan’ project is a collaboration between the Biodiversity team, Fingal Operations, Ecological consultants and the many Tidy Towns groups across the County.
Why the long grass?
You may have noticed that some areas along roads, our parks and housing estates have not been cut yet. The new mowing regime in these areas is part of Fingal County Council’s efforts to make our parks and open space more biodiversity friendly and to address the Biodiversity Crisis.
Changing the way we manage our open space is one of the actions of the Fingal Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2030 and the many individual town biodiversity plans. Urban areas, and open space in particular, can provide great opportunities for wildlife and the way we manage our open space has a big influence on whether its biodiversity potential can be achieved.
Fingal’s Operations Department have taken on board the most beneficial changes that can be made to our maintenance regime to facilitate Biodiversity improvements in our open space:
- Changes in our grass maintenance schedule from regular cuts to meadow cuts at particular sites
- Reduction of herbicide use.
- Leaving grassy areas under tree copses uncut.
Frequently cutting grass very short might look tidy but this has limited benefits for most wildlife. Not cutting grass as short or as frequently allows grasses and other plants such as Dandelions, Buttercups, Daisies and Knapweed to flower and set seed. Wildflowers provide nectar and pollen for insects such as bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths. Long grass areas also offer a safe refuge for insects such as grasshoppers, spiders and beetles. All these insects in turn provide food for birds, hedgehogs and bats.
The Council is also working on reducing its herbicide use. This is resulting in long grass areas around trees and under tree copses. Most of these areas will be cut once a year in late autumn. The Council is also deploying steel brushes on paved areas to reduce the amount of weeds in housing estates and road sides.
By reducing spraying, leaving long grass under tree copses and allowing some meadow areas to grow long over summer we can contribute to improving the Biodiversity value of Fingal’s parks and open spaces.
The meadow sites that have been selected will be assessed by an ecologist to ascertain the biodiversity value of these meadows. The Council will be assessing the cost of this type of grassland management and explore various grass disposal options and cut & collect machinery options available on the market. The Council is also participating in a research project led by Kildare County Council and Maynooth University on Sustainable Management Practices for Open Public Spaces.
