Meadow maintenance

City meadows

The City maintains Guelph’s natural meadows by mowing portions of them between mid-August and late October.

As of August 2024, the following meadow sites are maintained by City staff:

• Eastview Community Park (portions of the former Eastview landfill)
• Water Street Park (hydro corridor and trail at the west end of Water Street)
• Eramosa River Park (between Boult Avenue and Brockville Avenue)
• A portion of the Speed River Trail North (area surrounding the trail connections from Ingram Drive and Simmonds Drive)
• Northview Trail (between Northview Park and Beverley Robinson Park)

What is meadow maintenance?

Natural meadows are an important feature of Guelph’s biodiversity and natural heritage, offering urban habitat for rare bird species like bobolink and eastern meadowlark, as well as many pollinating insects that need meadows and open grassland to thrive.

Unlike rural meadows, which experience natural wildfires or agricultural grazing to maintain them as grasslands, urban meadows need help to control invasive plants and prevent them from turning into forests over time.

Mowing using a rotational approach in these areas does not damage native plants and flowers. It helps to reduce competition from non-native plants while stimulating the growth and spread of native plants. The City is monitoring the meadows and taking an adaptive management approach to their maintenance. This approach includes combining mowing with other meadow management and enhancement techniques as needed in these areas, like planting additional native plants to enhance overall biodiversity and habitat value for wildlife that depend on meadows.

We’re committed to balancing the need for more urban forest canopy city-wide and maintaining existing meadows in places that are the right size and location. Maintaining a network of different types of natural habitats enhances biodiversity across the city.

How we protect birds, wildlife and insects

Meadow maintenance only starts after ground-nesting birds and wildlife have stopped breeding for the season and young birds have permanently left their nest. We use rotational mowing in these areas so that only a portion of each site is mowed each year, this means there are always areas left un-mowed to provide refuges for wildlife. This technique also ensures each section is only mowed every few years, leaving enough time for plants to regenerate and thrive. We set the mower height to avoid leaving bare ground and help to protect wildlife.

How you can protect urban meadows

• Use your yard waste collection bags to get rid of garden clippings, seeds, plants and shrubs so they don’t spread to nearby meadows.
• Plant native plants in your yard, so that invasive plants don’t spread from your yard into nearby meadows. Check out Guelph’s Healthy Landscapes program for free advice on pollinator-friendly gardening.
• Keep your dog leashed in natural areas to protect ground-nesting birds and wildlife.
• Get involved with local stewardship efforts at guelph.ca/stewardship.

For more information

519-867-5626
[email protected]