Wardens Blog

Today I helped build my first ever stile! Paul and I went up to Trebanog Isaf just over the hill from Penderyn where a new permissive footpath has been put in and added a new stile at the fence crossing.

The majority of this week has been spent up on Waun Figen Felen Bog. We spent three days airlifting the bags of gorse up onto the hill -  and I had my first helicopter ride (see below).

On the third day of the helicopter lift the BBC came up to the bog to film for Iolo Williams’ Welsh Safari programme. Toby and I had a good chat in Welsh with Iolo and he’s a really nice guy and very knowledgable about wildlife and conservation issues.

Another few days have been spent up on the bog spreading the gorse and laying Geojute in the gulleys. The purpose of spreading the gorse is to prevent further erosion of the peat and encourage new plant growth. Geojute is a lighweight net made from jute fibre which prevents erosion and biodegrades within about one season.

The weather was really nice towards the beginning of the week but gradually worsened as the week went on. We went up this Wednesday (the 19th of September) with the volunteers and it was pretty wet and windy all day which meant plenty of hot drinks to keep us warm (see above)!

For the last three days I’ve been at Plas-Tan-Y-Bwlch in North Wales on a National Park induction course.

Plas Tan y Bwlch

On the first day me, Marcia and Alan drove up to North Wales arriving about lunch time. In the afternoon we had to give a presentation on our park which we did through the medium of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. Alan played the role of Chris Tarrant perfectly even though he’d never seen the show before! On Tuesday we went on a day trip and visited Beddgelert - a lovely little village. In the evening we had to give another group presentation - this time with staff from other parks. On Wednesday we had a group discussion and a presentation by a lady from a landscape conservation organization in Aberystwyth. And after a delicious lunch we headed back home.

Helped out on a check point for the British Heart Foundation sponsored run/walk today. In the early morning we drove half way up the mountain in the land-rover then used the quads to carry the kit the rest of the way to the check point we were on. It was amazing how fast some of the teams got around! The national Park team - Toby, Su and Nick - did really well coming in eighth position out of 42 teams although sadly Toby didn’t live up to the challenge of wearing a thong on the day!

Spent all day today and yesterday bagging gorse on Mynydd Illtyd. The gorse is going to be flown by helicopter up to Waun Figen Felen bog in the next few weeks where it will be used to help stabilize the bog.

Today Rex and I went down to the waterfalls area to assess the condition of the red and green routes and to decide on any changes that needed to be made. The condition of the paths is quite bad in places and some area of the waterfalls have suffered severe erosion due to visitor pressures.

Footpath erosion down at Clun Gwyn waterfall

More erosion

Worryingly a management plan was written in 1995 outlining all the problems in the area yet those problems still exist today.

Spent this afternoon carrying out a visitor survey at Gwaun Hepste car park. The aim of the survey is to gather feedback from visitors on their experience in the waterfalls area. In the future this information will be compared to surveys carried out after the waterfalls area project has been completed to ensure that the project has been successful.

This morning I had an induction with Chris Gledhill along with four other newcomers. He talked about the aims of the park, how it’s run - the staff structure, and about the parks future direction. In the afternoon I did a pilot test of the visitor survey for the waterfalls area and realized that a lot needed to be altered so I went back to the office to make the corrections and print off copies - lucky for me Ann (commonly know as god) offered to print and distribute the questionnaires for me which saved me a lot of time - thanks Ann your the greatest!

Met Rex at the mountain centre in Libanus this morning and assisted him with running a geologically themed walk around the area. The walk was ten miles long and we had three people on the walk with us.

The walk took us first to Twyn y Gaer - a hillfort to the North east of the mountain centre. Here is some information from the National Park website on the hillfort:

This hillfort lies about 5km west of Brecon at the northern end of a strip of common land owned by Brecon Beacons National Park Authority.  There is open access to the site. A public right of way(Heol Cefn-y-gaer) runs north-south past the site.  The hill which rises to a height of 367m is composed of mudstones and siltstones of the St Maughan’s Formation which include two or three bands of sandstone.  Ripple marks can be seen in the quarried slabs of the uppermost band near the trig point which crowns the hill. Of rather later origin are a series of ‘pillow mounds’ on the southern and eastern flanks of the hill.  These low mounds were provided in connection with the breeding of rabbits in recent centuries. 

From here we went on to a disused quarry near Allt Lom where there is evidence in the rock of a fossilised riverbed. 

We then walked a short section of Sarn Helen - the roman road - before heading for Cefn Llechid (400m) where we had lunch and took in the stunning panoramic views. We then followed the bridleway south down from Cefn Llechid and onto the road for a short period. On the way back we passed the fens and raised bogs of Traeth Mawr - which is designated as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). For more information follow this link: http://www.breconbeacons.org/content/environment/bd-in-the-bbnp/wetlands-and-open-water/raised-bog 

Spent most of today creating a visitor survey for the waterfalls area. The aim is to find out what visitors think of the area (the conditions of the footpaths etc) before we carry out the work and then we will carry out the same survey again after the work has been completed - the results should be interesting!