Species-rich hay meadow sites in West Norway: conservation and management

Many farms of west Norway are abandoned, and on most of the managed farms only high-intensity farming is practised. On a few of the managed farms, however, ancient agricultural management, with sheep grazing in spring and in autumn, one late cut and no fertilising is still practised, and here long-term use has resulted in species-rich sites. These sites cover small areas on each of the actual farms, as most of the infields is heavily fertilised grasslands and poor in species. Earlier these fertilised parts of the infields were tilled fields for grain production where large amounts of winter manure were applied. The species rich parts of the infield are situated on steep slopes or on shallow soils. This combination of high-intensity and low-intensity farming is highly vulnerable as it is dependent on the farmers' interests and time resources. In this study recordings of vascular plant species, area, aspect, slope, vegetation type and present management of twelve species-rich grassland sites in West Norway were assembled. Only one of the species rich sites is protected by law, and the owners of this and one of the other sites are given a small financial support each year. In order to conserve the vegetation of the sites for the future, long-term management plans and conservation plans are needed. The management of the hay meadows should be made attractive to the farmers by including the hay meadows in developing programs for agro-tourism in these regions. The nature itself, such as fjords, mountains and glaciers has been the main traditional tourist attractions in West Norway till present time. The species-rich grasslands might become one of several additional attractions, as they are situated no more than about one hour by car from main region centres. Organisations for tourism are already well developed in the regions.