It was a magic moment yesterday for a project which seeks to protect and restore flower-rich grassland for which the North-East has a special responsibility.
The MAGical Meadows venture, based at Durham Wildlife Trust's headquarters, has been running for a year and aims to conserve and extend magnesian limestone grassland with its special communities of upland and lowlands flowers and the insects and butterflies which depend on them.
The grassland is found on the belt of limestone which runs from South Tyneside and Sunderland through County Durham, but which has been destroyed or degraded over the years by urban development and changing farming practices.
Of only 279 hectares of surviving magnesian limestone grassland sites of special scientific interest left in the UK, two-thirds is found in the North-East.
Funding for the project was due to end this year but now it will continue until 2007 thanks to a £320,000 grant from English Nature through Defra's aggregates levy fund.
The news has delighted 27-year-old Michelle Appleby, MAGical Meadows officer who graduated from Newcastle University in countryside management and whose dissertation was on how the exposed rock in abandoned limestone quarries in the region, such as Old Marsden in South Tyneside, Fulwell in Sunderland and Wingate and Bishop Middleham in County Durham is vital to the grassland communities.
Michelle said that during the project's year schemes had been launched to maintain and improve existing grassland in County Durham.
This includes using longhorn cattle to graze sites at Beacon Hill, near Easington, Exmoor ponies at Thrislington, and Hebridean sheep at Quarrington Hill.
Grazing prevents rank grasses from crowding out plants like blue moor grass, butterwort and yellow wort, bird's eye primrose, dark red helleborine and bee orchid.
At Old Marsden clay topsoil has been removed to expose the limestone which has been sown with hand-collected seed.
The project is being repeated at Fulwell.
The new funding will allow a road verge survey scheme to continue. The aim is to identify verges and roadside areas which have limestone grassland, especially where the construction of routes and cuttings has exposed the rock such as at Wheatley Hill bypass in County Durham.
Michelle said: "We want to improve the verges and use them to extend sites and also connect isolated sites."
Durham University's botanic garden is also creating a magnesian limestone rockery with material donated by aggregate companies Lafarge and Sherburn Stone.
Another key target is to work with private landowners to help them care for grassland in their ownership.
Michelle will be leading guided grassland walks on July 30 at English Nature's Celebrating Our Coast public event at Lime Kiln Gill, Horden, in County Durham.
The grassland meadows will be the main attraction of a nine-mile guided walk taking in four local nature reserves in South Tyneside and Sunderland on Wednesday.
Meet at Souter Lighthouse car park, Coast Road, Whitburn, at 10am on Wednesday.
