In late November 2016 a number of volunteers met for the first time to establish a “steering group” (SG), with the aim of further developing Carmarthenshire Meadows Group (CMG). We have since then met regularly.   Some of the initial steering group have moved on – and new members have joined.  The current list below provides a short bio for each of us.  We remain keen to be inclusive yet diverse group all keen to raise the profile of the group and spread knowledge about wild flower meadows and related diversity in the county. 

Please see the separate webpage for how to become a member of the group. If you’d like to help the group develop, and be involved on the steering group, or just find out a bit more, then do get in touch with the current website administrator, Rachel, at website@carmarthenshiremeadows.com

Andrew and Helen …  Andrew is the current chairman of CMG.  He and Helen have lived at Dryslwyn on a 5 acre smallholding, since 2012.  They try to manage their small piece of countryside to be as biodiverse as possible, and are restoring two small (c. 1 acre each) fields as flower rich hay meadows.  They used to work in agricultural research, Helen on insect biodiversity of field margins and Andrew mostly on bees.  Andrew has been involved with the CMG since the idea germinated.

Rachel …  lives near St Clears. It’s a mixed bag of a house about 150m above sea level that has been a cottage, a pub and a small scale farm.  Moving from London in 2014 she and Tony wanted to create a wildflower meadow, only to find they had accidentally moved to one. The land also has woods, wet fields, hedges – and a work in progress garden. 

Kate...  works for West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (WWBIC) one of four Local Environmental Record Centres (LERC) in Wales. Her role involves getting species records in to the centre by liaising with recorders and recording groups. She grew up on a hill farm in the Brecon Beacons and studied biology at Aberystwyth University. She lives with husband and son near Haverfordwest. She is interested in all aspects of biodiversity and farming.

Colin and Yvonne …  have owned their cottage with approx 1 hectare of field and garden near Ffarmers since 2006. The field is heavy wet clay dominated by rushes and an assortment of grasses including Purple Moor Grass. It has previously been abused by the dumping of clay subsoil on part of it compounded by serious poaching by horses. Annual cutting and clearing has resulted in a slow increase in other species such as wild Angelica, Meadowsweet, Knapweed and recently Yellow Rattle and Devil’s bit Scabious. Colin is the current treasurer of the group.

Isabel … Isabel had the idea for establishing a Carmarthenshire Meadows Group back in early 2015, and set up the initial public meeting at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in April 2015, and has organised all the early meetings of the group and currently advises the events planning sub group. She is the biodiversity officer for Carmarthenshire.

Ivy….[bio to follow]

Laura….moved to a smallholding in 2017. It is a varied plot with 2 fields, wet willow woodland, mix broadleaved woodland and an orchard. She has a very broad interest in natural history, is an avid biological recorder and her aim is to try and increase biodiversity across her land. She has been trying to tame areas of bramble and blackthorn thicket to allow a greater ground flora to emerge and has various areas where she is tackling soft rush to encourage meadow plants.

 Thanks for reading.