Conservation Team Report 2017 - 2018 Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales 1 www.welshwildlife.org Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Members of the conservation team ......................................................................... 3 1.2 Our assets .............................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Our funders ............................................................................................................. 9 2. Nature Reserves .......................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Introduction to our work on our nature reserves .................................................... 10 2.2 Habitat management ............................................................................................. 14 2.3 Research .............................................................................................................. 17 2.4 Recording and monitoring ..................................................................................... 20 2.5 Volunteers ............................................................................................................ 22 2.6 Public access management .................................................................................. 25 2.7 Interpretation ......................................................................................................... 27 3. Wider Countryside ....................................................................................................... 28 3.1 Introduction to our wider countryside work ............................................................ 29 3.2 Partnerships.......................................................................................................... 29 3.3 Representation on external committees ................................................................ 30 3.4 Planning ................................................................................................................ 31 3.5 Consultation responses ........................................................................................ 32 3.6 Wider Countryside Projects ................................................................................... 33 3.6.1 Connecting People and Nature ...................................................................... 33 3.6.2 Gelli Hir – A Woodland Haven for Wildlife & The Community ......................... 35 3.6.3 West Glamorgan’s Wild Woodlands – the last leg! ......................................... 36 3.6.4 Making a difference for wildlife – our ‘Pioneer Project’ ................................... 36 4. Marine Conservation .................................................................................................... 38 4.1 Discovering Our Coasts ..................................................................................... 38 4.2 Living Seas, outreach & awareness raising ....................................................... 39 5. Media and public awareness ........................................................................................ 39 5.1 Media work ........................................................................................................... 40 5.2 Public Engagement ............................................................................................... 41 5.3 Wildlife queries ..................................................................................................... 45 6. Consultancy and contracts ........................................................................................... 45 6.1 Consultancy .......................................................................................................... 45 6.2 Contracting ........................................................................................................... 46 7. Education ..................................................................................................................... 47 8. Plans for 2018-19 ......................................................................................................... 49 2 1. Introduction This report covers the work delivered by the Conservation Team of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW) during the financial year 2017 - 2018. It covers the full breadth of work undertaken by the team, including both core funded activities and fixed-term grant funded projects. It aims to capture and celebrate the ongoing work that is done every year, and recognise fully the huge effort made by the team in simply maintaining the present condition of our many and glorious nature reserves, as well as the new and innovative projects. Neither would succeed without the other, but so often, that which is routine is neglected, when we speak and write about our work. Many of our fixed-term projects produce reports of their own, and more detail on any area of work included in this report is available on request from the member of staff involved. Contact details for all the team members are available below. This report is written by all the members of the Conservation Team and their volunteers, and compiled and edited by Lizzie Wilberforce. 1.1 Members of the conservation team This year saw quite a few changes to our team. Kate Gwynn, our previous year’s student placement from Aberystwyth University, finished her year with WTSWW and returned to her final year of study, with our grateful thanks for the huge amount of energy, enthusiasm and hard work that she gave to our team. At the start of the new academic year we welcomed Lily Ginns as our 2017-18 placement, from Cardiff University. You can find Lily’s account of her time with WTSWW later in this report. Seasonal contracts issued during 2017 included the Skomer Assistant Warden (Sarah Purdon, who we were pleased to welcome to our staff team as she had previously volunteered with us in a number of different roles), and our Skomer Field Worker post (Julie Riordan). At Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre (CBMWC), Living Seas Awareness Officer Emma Lowe moved on to pastures new, and with a slight change to the role, were able to welcome Aline Denton to the team as the CBMWC Project Officer. Lorna Baggett moved from her role as People and Wildlife Officer during the year to take on a role managing the nature reserves in the Valleys, backfilling the vacancy left by Carys Solman when she became Conservation Manager. This meant we had a vacancy to fill at Parc Slip and we were delighted to recruit Megan Howells to the role as People and Wildlife Officer, who hit the ground running after her experience with us two years ago as a placement student with the team. Leighton Newman also left his Skomer post for new adventures on the Norfolk coast in early 2018, and we welcomed Sarah Parmor to the island team as the Skomer Visitor Officer, ready for the new season. With much experience both on Skomer and on Ramsey, Sarah was also ideally placed to take on the unique challenges that Skomer presents. 3 We were also sad to say goodbye to Carys Solman in the spring of 2018, who left the role of Conservation Manager in our central region. At time of writing this post has not been recruited and the management roles are being shared by existing staff. Likewise we had to say goodbye to our People and Wildlife Officer Rose Revera, who left our shores for exciting travels overseas. At the very end of the 2017-18 year, WTSWW also formally merged with Brecknock Wildlife Trust. Although the merger officially took place on the first of April 2018, the 2017-18 year was heavily dominated by preparations for the merger. The achievements and outputs of the Brecknock team are not included in this report, as they were a separate organisation for the relevant period and will report accordingly. However, mindful of the integration of the teams and of welcoming their conservation staff to our fold, their details are given at the end of the following section on team members. The contact details for each team member are given below. Conservation Team Staff April 2017 – March 2018 inclusive Sarah Conservation Manager Woodcock [email protected] 07976 464284 Lizzie Conservation Manager Wilberforce [email protected] 07970 780553 Carys Solman Conservation Manager for Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath & Port Talbot (until February 2018) Ben Allen Mid Wales Grey Squirrel Control Officer 07980 [email protected] 928733 Lorna Baggett Reserves Officer (Valleys) 07812 [email protected] 063444 4 Richard Skokholm Observatory Warden Brown [email protected] 07971 114303 Bee Büche Skomer Warden 07971 [email protected] 114302 Tara Daniels West Glamorgan’s Wild Woodlands Project Officer 07855 [email protected] 009622 Aline Denton Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre Project Officer 01545 [email protected] 560224 Laura Evans Living Seas Volunteer Co-ordinator 01545 [email protected] 560224 Giselle Eagle Skokholm Island Warden 07971 [email protected] 114303 Ceri Evans Reserves Officer (Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath, Port 07497 Talbot) 006612 [email protected] Em Foot Wildlife Trust Officer, Ceredigion 07980 [email protected] 932332 Lily Ginns Cardiff University placement 5 Meg Howells People and Wildlife Officer (from October 2017) 01656 [email protected] 724100