Burry Port Woodlands Wednesday 24th January 2018

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Today saw us with Simeon Jones, Conservation Officer, in Burry Port Woodlands, at the Western end of the Millennium Coast Park.

 The woodlands are part of a four year Glastir scheme, (the Welsh Government scheme for sustainable land management) and are about 15 years old. Today was about selecting one in three trees, from an area not yet thinned, and marking them for felling as part of the cycle of thinning the woodland to ensure the habitat is in the best condition it can be.

 See the  Welsh Government website for more details

 http://gov.wales/topics/environmentcountryside/farmingandcountryside/farming/schemes


The woodland is mostly comprised of Grey Alder, Silver Birch, Willow sp, Corsican Pine, Whitebeam Sp, Blackthorn, Ash, Oak and a few Maple spp and Holly; we didn't see a great deal of Ash dieback but it is present, some of the Holly in the woodlands have a very symmetrical shape, which is probably indicative of the total lack of grazing.

Considering the proximity of the sea, less than 500m, there were very few wind affected trees with many of them having very straight trunks.
Simeon pointing out the Oak not to mark! (opps)

Luckily the worst of the weather had passed through by the time we started, the shocking thing for me was the amount of dog mess within the first two hundred metres of the car park, unbelievably disgusting, it was like "hopscotch" not to step in it, then the number of bags of dog poo hanging from the bushes beggars belief!

Veronica marking away

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