Natur Cymru
A full version of this article appears in the
magazine. The story of the Wildlife Trusts in Wales starts with the
Pembrokeshire Bird Society which became the West Wales Field
Society (WWFS) in 1945. One of its first actions was to take up the
lease of Skokholm from Ronald Lockley. While the Pembrokeshire
islands remained a focus of interest, in the 1950s the Society’s
interests broadened to the protection of all wildlife.
In the 1950s and 1960s, groups of naturalists in Wales came
together to form Naturalists’ Trusts. The magazine Nature in
Wales was started in 1955, with an introduction by Ronald
Lockley, and was issued to all Wildlife Trust members in Wales
until it folded after 30-odd years. Natur Cymru – Nature of
Wales was started to fill the gap. In 1970 the book Welsh
Wildlife in Trust, edited by Prof. Bill Lacey, was published
by the North Wales Naturalists’ Trust (NWNT). It included
contributions from all the Welsh Trusts and is still a mine of
information about the early development of the Trusts and the
natural history of Wales at that time. Several of the chapter
authors are still around, with two writing regularly for Natur
Cymru!
West Wales
In 1948 the WWFS, who appointed two wardens.
One of these, Bill Condry, remained a key figure for the next 40
years, while David Saunders was the first Warden of Skomer in 1960
and is still active. Two significant events happened in 1968;
first, Ronald Lockley gave WWNT some land at Martin’s Haven with a
house (now Lockley Lodge), providing a mainland base for operations
on the islands. Secondly, the Teifi marshes Nature Reserve outside
Cardigan was created, giving a superb outdoor experience for
visitors to the Welsh Wildlife Centre at Cilgerran.
The Glamorgan Trust was managing 23 reserves
by 1969. It supported a campaign to prevent part of Crymlyn Bog
becoming a rubbish tip; after a judicial review the site was
created an SSSI and now has European designations. Both WWNT and
GNT became Wildlife Trusts in that year, and in 2002 a merger took
place creating the WT of South and West Wales. There has been
considerable activity on the Pembrokeshire islands in the last 10
years: the buildings on Skomer were totally renewed, then Skokholm
was bought by the Trust. Energetic volunteers are now doing up the
accommodation – saving 90% of the original £1,000,000 estimate.
In Monmouthshire, one of the Trust’s first
acquisitions was a piece of Magor Marsh in the Gwent levels: the
enlarged reserve now has an education centre. In 1991 a successful
campaign raised £150,000 in six weeks to buy Pentwyn Farm, a 30
acre smallholding with flower-rich meadows and a medieval barn.
Silent Valley near Ebbw Vale is another important reserve of 125
acres, used for school visits and public enjoyment and managed to
enhance its wildlife. GWT has opposed the development of a Severn
barrage and worked to protect the Gwent levels from drainage
threats and an M4 relief motorway.
Powys
There are three Wildlife Trusts in the present
county of Powys. Brecknock WT’s early strength was the large number
of specialist interest groups that catalogued the plants, animals
and geology of the area. They ran a successful campaign against
otter hunting, lobbying riverside landowners to deny the hunt
access to the Usk. This led to cooperation with the Vincent
Wildlife Trust, creation of otter havens and the first national
otter survey in Wales in 1977. In 2003 a £1 million legacy enabled
BWT to appoint reserve and education staff. At the old mining town
of Ystradgynlais habitats are being improved for the endangered
Marsh Fritillary butterfly.
Radnorshire WT began as a sub-committee of the Hereford and
Radnor NT. Dr Fred Slater, who ran the Newbridge-on-Wye field
centre, was an early activist. Immediately after its formation, the
Trust bought the 383 acre farm of Gilfach, a largely unimproved
upland farm with a 14th century longhouse. Gilfach is
now an SSSI and one of the premier nature reserves in Wales. RWT
has pioneered a scheme of private nature reserves, campaigned for
the toads of Llandrindod Lake, and works with 65 commoners to
manage a 2000 hectare common near Knighton.
In Montgomeryshire WT there was an early
emphasis on cooperation with local farmers and landowners, also
surveys of bats, newts and butterflies. The Trust acquired 100
acres of saltmarsh on the Dyfi and Llandinam gravels, one of the
last untamed stretches of the river Severn. Cors Dyfi was added in
2006: following the felling of conifers, rewetting of the marsh and
grazing by water buffalo, the reserve attracted the first pair of
Ospreys to breed in mid-Wales for 400 years. In 2011 48,000
visitors came to enjoy the spectacle, giving a boost to the local
economy. MWT has been pioneering upland management with its
Pumlumon Living Landscape project centred on the Glaslyn reserve.
This involves rewetting bogs, reducing rapid run-off and the risk
of downstream flooding, all contributing to a richer and more
varied landscape while also benefitting local communities.
North Wales
When 105 acres came up for sale at Cors Goch,
Anglesey, in 1962, NWNT was formed to buy it. Cemlyn, an important
tern breeding site, presented many challenges, as when the outlet
weir failed thereby endangering the tern chicks. Today, 1600 pairs
of Sandwich terns nest here, protected by two wardens and keen
volunteers. By 1988 the Trust had 28 reserves including its
largest, 480 hectares of heather moorland at Llyn Brenig. In 1995
the old explosives works Gwaith Powdwr (near Porthmadog) was
acquired and Cors Goch gained NNR and Ramsar status.
NWWT now has over 6,000 members, and
throughout Wales WT membership has grown to 25,000. This reflects
the rise in public concern for the environment, in the face of the
losses which people see taking place around them. Although people
are concerned about wider environmental issues, and the membership
of many environmental bodies has grown over the last half century,
people often identify most strongly with their ‘home turf’. The WTs
are unique in enabling people to engage with their local
environment, whilst at the same time feeling part of a UK-wide
movement.
The future
Over the years there have been attempts to
encourage the Welsh Trusts to work more closely together. More
recently, devolution has created a situation where the ability to
speak with one voice has become a necessity; the Welsh Government
and its national agencies prefer to deal with a single body when
handing out annual grants, for example. Out of these pressures has
emerged Wildlife Trusts Wales (WTW), with a Director and small
staff based in Cardiff. WTW will have even more to do, once the
current merger of Government agencies in Wales is completed. The
end result could be an enhanced role for the Wildlife Trusts in
speaking up for the Welsh environment, and their emergence as major
contractors for the statutory sector.
Kate Gibbs is Chair of North
Wales Wildlife Trust and Geoff Gibbs writes
regularly for Natur Cymru.
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Issue 43