Grass verge cutting

Sun 18 May, 22:28 (last edited on Sun 18 May, 22:51)

It's worth reading this: "When managed well, road verges, whether rural or urban and whether on major or minor roads, can sustain an astonishing amount of wildlife: more pollinators are found on well-managed verges than in the neighbouring countryside and nearly 45% of our total flora is found on verges.

Today, the majority of the UK’s grass road verges are either cut too frequently and at the wrong time, or abandoned to scrub. Cuttings are left to lie creating a thick thatch, inhibiting growth and increasing soil nutrient levels, which further stimulates vigorous grasses and other nutrient-loving plants. This cycle increases on-going management costs and negatively impacts on the safe functioning of the highway. These unintended consequences are largely due to inappropriate management contracts, focused on safety considerations with little or no consideration of potential wider benefits.

We need to manage our road verges as a nationally significant response to the decline of our wildlife, raising the management bar across the whole grassland estate not just on a few hundred miles of roadside nature reserve. Such transformative action is what is necessary to create ‘more, bigger, better and joined up’ habitats and ‘Making Space for Nature’ in keeping with government recommendations.

This guide advocates a different management approach. One that reduces cutting frequency, reduces vegetation growth and the resulting management burden, improves the natural capital value – in particular the number and diversity of flowering plants – and ordinarily results in sustainable operational costs long term and a reduced carbon footprint."

From "Managing Grassland Road Verges: A Best Practice Guide" . https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/62602eef03c83769e0539df4/6761981e1b74a1a2a875eab4_Managing%20grassland%20road%20verges.pdf