Farmland wildlife

Nestling beneath the windswept moors, the dales are an essential part of the character of the National Park.

Most farming is traditional cattle and sheep rearing with a few dairy farms.

Grassland

The beauty and diversity of the grasslands found here are relatively little known, but they easily repay a closer look in spring, summer and autumn. From moor-edge acid pastures to the ungrazed coastal slopes, these grasslands support a wide variety of wild flowers, butterflies and birds.

In a few dales there are still flower rich neutral grasslands managed as hay meadows, and marshy grasslands heady with the scent of meadow-sweet. On the steep dalesides of the Tabular Hills fragments of limestone grassland persist, often grazed by rabbits, spangled by tiny wild flowers and graced by a variety of butterflies. Several are protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest but all are valued as refuges for biodiversity.

This National Park’s grasslands form a very important component of its landscape, economy and biodiversity. A habitat survey in 1990 revealed that grasslands covered 27% of the Park area and this figure is likely to be substantially the same today.

Most grassland in the North York Moors is of high agricultural importance and has been fertilised and sometimes reseeded to increase its productivity. Generally, such “improved” swards are of low value for biodiversity, because few wild flowers and only a limited range of invertebrates can cope with the fertile conditions. They may still be of value for some wild birds, especially if the hedges are thick and some areas stay wet after rain.

Where steep slopes, rocky or wet ground hamper access by tractors, there are still some grasslands which have retained their traditional flora and fauna.

These flower-rich grasslands are quite different from agriculturally-improved pastures and meadows, and their character reflects strongly the soils beneath them. They are usually divided into three main types - acid, neutral and limestone - depending on the amount of limestone (ie the pH) in the soil.

Acid grasslands

Acid grasslands are most widespread, being found on sandstone-derived soils in the upper dales and along the moor edge. These grasslands are often grazed closely by sheep, so their charms are often in miniature and rather well-hidden.

A close look will reveal a scatter of yellow tormentil flowers, puffy white masses of white heath bedstraw and perhaps some aromatic, pink-flowered thyme fringing a protruding rock. This type of grassland is often on land which was once moor, and heathland plants such as heather and bilberry may form a mosaic with the fine-leaved grasses.

Neutral grasslands

In the lower parts of the dales where soils are richer, flower-rich grasslands are much scarcer than the acid pastures above them. Where they do occur, however, they can be spectacular in summer. For example, the grasslands in the Hole of Horcum at Saltergate support a virtual carpet of white pignut flowers in early summer, followed by yellow meadow buttercups and then purple betony later in July.

Fragments of neutral grassland can also be found on some roadside verges, where common spotted orchids, ox-eye daisies and meadow cranesbills show us what the adjacent fields might once have contained.

Limestone grasslands

On the Tabular and Hambleton Hills which fringe the southern and western edges of the National Park, the soils are naturally rich in calcium, derived from the limestone bedrock. Much of this country is good agricultural land, growing arable crops and productive leys (seeded grasslands).

Flower-rich limestone grasslands are largely restricted to steep dalesides where, amongst hawthorn and gorse bushes, some of the National Park’s most diverse grasslands can be found. The thin stony soils at the edge of a disused limestone quarry or next to a well-lit forestry track will reveal cowslips in spring, milkwort and rock-rose in summer, and harebells and autumn gentian in August and September. A wide variety of butterflies can be found in these areas, particularly the pretty common blue.

Marshy grasslands

Even in fields that are regularly fertilised, or sprayed to control agricultural weeds such as thistles, wild flowers sometimes persist in wetter hollows. Along with rushes (or “sieves”), the spring-blooming cuckoo flower or tattered pink of ragged robin flowers may be found in these marshy spots, or the blowsy white mass of meadow-sweet.

Snipe often shelter in such areas, where their long beaks can probe the soft damp ground for worms and insects. Lapwing and curlew still nest in good numbers near marshy patches in moor-edge fields.

Coastal slopes

Along the boulder clay coastal cliffs forming much of the National Park’s north and east boundary, grasslands which fit the above descriptions can all be encountered.

In addition, several species are much more commonly seen here than anywhere else in the Park. Yellow-flowered kidney vetch, which prefers lime-rich soils, can be seen on the slumping clay slopes around Ravenscar. The cliffs at Staithes support large populations of wild cabbage, the species from which our domestic cabbage varieties have been descended. First brought to this country by the Romans, this unusual coastal plant provides a novel addition to our native flora.

Arable Land

This habitat is perhaps the most intensively managed of all within the National Park, but this does not mean it is devoid of wildlife.

Stubble left over winter supports seed-eating birds and the growing crops themselves can also provide shelter. Where chemical use is reduced or avoided, usually close to field edges, annual wild flowers can grow amongst the crop. They provide food for a variety of insects, which themselves feed the young of many farmland birds.

Along with the common species like chickweed, poppies and field speedwell, a few fields still support much scarcer wild flowers, such as night-flowering catchfly, bugloss and cornsalad.

Arable wild flowers are amongst the most threatened plant species in Britain, being particularly vulnerable to modern agricultural practices, so their presence here, mainly in the Tabular Hills, is greatly valued. The National Park Authority is currently working in partnership with Ryedale Folk Museum and the Carstairs Countryside Trust to encourage the consrvation of arable flowers. For more information see the web pages about the Cornfield Flower Project.