Natur Cymru

Issue 31

Anglesey Grazing Animals Partnership

Many of our richest wildlife habitats have been under pressure from increasing intensification of land-use. This sometimes obscures the fact that the opposite process can be just as problematic. Agriculture has moved away from many difficult open habitats – old grasslands, heaths and fens, for example – because they can be difficult to manage, and ultimately uneconomic. The Anglesey Grazing Animals Project is bringing back grazing animals and helping farmers, as Hilary Kehoe explains.

Summary

Sand Dunes

Changing management, a changing world?

Sand dunes. To most of us sand conjures up images of long hot summers on golden beaches, the screeching of seagulls overhead, laughing children and lashings of ice cream. To others, such as Angharad Evans, an Education Officer with Snowdonia National Park, there is a fascination in the golden grains and their ability to transform the land. In this article she describes the ecology of sand dunes and pays special attention to the dynamics of dunes in the Harlech area and the experimental work which has been taking place there.

This article is written in Welsh. A translation is available on request.

Farmers

The vital role of mainstream farmers in conservation

Conservationists usually concentrate their attention on the small proportion of farmers who manage land for wildlife, often helped by agri-environment schemes. Does that mean that the majority of farmers have nothing to contribute? Far from it, argues Glenda Thomas.

Urban Clutter

Urban clutter in the countryside

The landscape which we cherish is a fusion of natural and cultural history. Yet an aesthetic blindness is blighting the countryside, making it harder to appreciate and enjoy this richness. Peter Ogden champions a more graceful approach to a great rural legacy.

Lapwing

Farming and wildlife - taking stock

Farming is the dominant influence over most of our land and its wildlife. Can the Government-supported agricultural sector produce food efficiently and maintain a wildlife-rich environment? At the start of this decade, there was optimism that new agri-environment schemes could help to achieve this. This optimism has faded, but the development of landscape-scale schemes could herald a brighter future, as Jeff Davies.

Polecat

"Inspired by Nature" competition joint winner: The European polecat - unsung species

Although the European polecat has featured in previous articles in this magazine, this attractive mammal, which has now spread out from its former refuge in Wales, needs to feature in the popular media and become a symbol for British conservation, argues Owen Bidder.

Mayfly

The F-Words: Flowers, flies, frogs and fishes

Pat O'Reilly heaps praise on initiatives that are spreading with alien rapidity.

Mammals

Mammal Monitoring - the water shrew and freinds

Mammal surveys usually involve trapping, and observations of the natural behaviour of elusive small mammals like the water shrew are rare. The methods used in one study overcame this limitation and produced some fascinating insights, as Rob Parry reports.