BIG fluffy Belted Galloway cattle wandering through head height scrub and grassland may create a bit of a spectacle but does it really benefit our wildlife or is it just a way of giving cows holidays?

Many people must have wondered this when the Wyre Forest District Council grazing scheme began in a small way back in 1998.

It started as a rather hair-brained idea, grazing cattle on some of the poorest quality grazing land to be found in the district.

However, since its inception, the idea has snowballed with the district council's scheme being recognised nationally by becoming one of the pilot schemes for the National Grazing Animals Project and attracting funding from English Nature to allow the scheme to expand.

To me, however, the real benefits of the Wyre Forest Grazing Animals Project can be seen on the ground in the improvement to the wild flower numbers.

There has also been an improvement in the diversity we can see across all the sites where grazing animals have been deployed.

Redstone Marsh in Stourport has been breathtaking this year, alive with waves of colour as the seasons changed.

Orchids have been flowering on the marshes of Puxton, but Spennells Valley has been possibly the most shocking of transformations.

Foot and mouth disease has meant that for most of this year Spennells Valley local nature reserve has been out of bounds, but with the lifting of restrictions, access has returned to normal.

Visiting the site to supervise the installation of the new boardwalk sections has been a really uplifting experience.

I cannot help but be impressed by the volume of flowers that are packed into the grazing area.

Meadow sweet and marsh valarium now blow in the breeze with hundreds of butterflies and damsel flies feeding on their nectar in an area that not so long ago was a tangle of nettle, Himalayan balsam and scrub.

Fuelled by the success of areas like this, the grazing project is now heading for Blake Marsh local nature reserve, where it is hoped the Belted Galloway cattle will graze later on this year for the first time.