Botanical surveys

Botanical surveys are critical for the conservation and restoration of wildflower floodplain meadows as we can only protect what we know is there. In the long term, they provide indication of how well the restoration process is working. At Christ Church Meadows, the baseline botanical survey prior to restoration in 2020 was led by Professor Stephen Harris and included members of Christ Church, the Oxford Botanical Gardens and TVWMRP. The same group has repeated the survey in 2021 to determine the species that have emerged so far from the green hay spreading. Further upstream at Pinkhill Farm, our baseline botanical surveys were undertaken by members of the Corallian Group: Sally Abbey, Frances Watkins, Susan Erskine, Sue Helm and Barbara Spence. We are extremely grateful to all our botanists.