THE county's public realm contractor has stepped in to help with preservation work at a Hereford nature reserve.

Through its community engagement programme ‘Living Places’, Balfour Beatty has helped Herefordshire Nature Trust establish a system for monitoring the vegetation on its reserves on Upper and Lower Lugg Meadow.

These form part of the largest and most important surviving Lammas meadow in the UK – where the system of land management dating back to medieval times is still carried out.

Reserve officer Sue Holland said: “Through this programme Balfour Beatty have provided us with the vital technical support we needed in order to set out the baseline monitoring points across the meadow.

"We are very grateful to Balfour Beatty for their help and to Michael Mable who gave us his time to work with us on the meadow."

Balfour Beatty volunteered a day and a half of staff time and vital technical support, helping the trust’s reserves officers carry out vegetation surveys using an accurate GPS device.

Thanks to the GPS data gathered, the trust will be able to accurately relocate and resurvey these areas in future years.

The project is a partnership between Herefordshire Nature Trust and Plantlife, with support from Floodplain Meadow Partnership.