1. Someone recently said "meadows are rarer and more endangered than many of the forests and megafauna" This is a simple truth and nearly everything that I write about is connected in some way to these meadows whether it be food, farming or wildlife.

2. Hay meadows have been maintained for generations in Transylvania to provide food for livestock which in turn brings food to the family table. The natural benefit to this cycle of life has been a rich, sustainable and biodiverse environment with a low carbon footprint.

3. However, meadow utilization has been changing fast, especially with so many young people moving west in search of better paid salaries. This results in fewer working the land and on return bringing ideas perceived to be 'better' and more 'efficient' methods of land use.

4. Some of these changes to meadows are ploughing for crops, chemical use, fencing and the planting of fruit trees.

Requirement for hay is also being reduced as farmers move from horses to mechanisation to work the land.

5. Unfortunately if these meadows disappear then many wild flower/grass species, insects, reptiles, small mammals, birds (including white storks) will also disappear. These meadows are where many of my bear + boar sightings occurred as they forage here too. Yes, bears eat grass!

6. Sometimes environmental solutions to improve biodiversity are cheap and simple, meadows are one of them. If you are interested in converting land or garden space to wild meadow species of plants and flowers then I recommend that you follow @NearbyWild https://nearbywild.org.uk/get-started/ 

7. To my friends back in the UK here are a few more tweeps to follow that are knowledgeable about meadows and attracting mammals and insects to them:-
@AmiesPhilip
@WaterVole
@ukbutterflies
@Buzz_dont_tweet
@BumblebeeTrust
@BioDataCentre
@Love_plants

8. I had an interesting 'tweet' exchange with @AmiesPhilip and in UK historical terms it wasn't that long ago that open field strip farming and meadows were commonplace. I just hope Romania doesn't follow the same monoculture ideology resulting in widespread biodiversity loss.