THE Devon Wildlife Trust this month invited the members of the Culm Advisory Group to see the progress of the restoration of wildflower rich meadows at its Dunsdon demonstration farm near Holsworthy.

The group which is made up of staff from Natural England, The Environment Agency, Westcountry Rivers Trust, DWT and FWAG spent the morning at the charity's Working Wetlands Project office at Cookworthy discussing the issues that have arisen over the past six months relating to the management of Culm grassland in North Devon.

In the afternoon the group was taken to the demonstration farm where they were able to witness the progress of the series of fields which have been restored from improved grassland back to species rich meadows.

The process has been funded by Natural England and has included all the new fencing, gates and hedgebanks that have also been re-created.

Devon Wildlife Trust's Becky Aston, who has been overseeing the project, said the demonstration farm had come on 'leaps andbounds' since the initial soil testing and stripping back in 2008.

She said: 'The site was chosen as it lies between two sections of DWT's Dunsdon National Nature reserve and the work will help rare species moves through the area making it more robust.

'Following the soil stripping we sowed a range of wildflowers and grasses including oxeye daisy, birdsfoot trefoil and ragged robin and we have been pleased with the range of species that have flowered this year.'