The Harnham Water Meadows are a good example of an agricultural unimproved group of damp meadows, a habitat increasingly scarce in Britain. They support a wide variety of native grasses and herbaceous plants. In their original form as floated meadows there will have been few if any trees and possibly no hedges until after Enclosure in the late eighteenth century. Now however there is a rich range of trees and shrubs including the recent planting of copses by the Trust. The meadows provide a varied habitat, including a damp, soft substrata to support the feeding and nesting of a wide range of birds. There is an extensive variety of butterflies and other invertebrates.
