TV presenter Iolo Williams speaks out against the Plasdwr housing plan

Plasdwr threatens the Great Crested Newt and other wildlife

Popular TV presenter and naturalist Iolo Williams has spoken out against the Plasdwr housing development proposal that threatens to destroy countryside in the green belt area of Cardiff northwest. Plasdwr is being promoted as “Cardiff’s garden city” but Williams calls the plan “sheer madness.”

He points out that already endangered wildlife species, including the great crested newt (Triturus cristatus), the barn owl (Tyto alba) and the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) all have populations that depend on habitats that exist on land scheduled for use, if the building of 6,000 new houses goes ahead.

Great Crested Newt (Photo: Public Domain)

The plan of Redrow Homes is to build all over countryside bordering on St Fagans, Fairwater (Pentrebane), Danescourt and Radyr, all on the outskirts of the north-west of Cardiff. There are large ponds in the fields and farmland affected by the housing development proposals, ponds, such as the Pentrebane Cottage Ponds, that are known to be used by the great crested newt, an amphibian that has been declining fast in the UK and is protected by law.

Barn Owl (Photo: Public Domain/Pixabay)

The barn owl is another British species of wildlife that has been dropping in numbers throughout the UK and is the subject of conservation schemes set up to protect this beautiful nocturnal bird of prey. Williams has pointed out that this magnificent bird is found in the area threatened by the development of the land.

The lesser horseshoe bat is one of the smallest mammals in the world. It roosts in colonies and in the UK, Wales is one the parts it is found. This bat is absent from Scotland. Threats to its survival include disturbance and destruction of roosting locations and the loss of suitable habitats in which it can forage for its prey, which are small insects and spiders. This bat flies low over the ground and will grab small creatures it can eat off of rocks and bushes.

Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Photo: Falcoperegrinus/Matthieu Gauvain)

Cardiff Council and the Local Development Plan (LDP)

Cardiff Council are favouring developers over the wishes of residents of the city when it comes to its LDP.  A report by Ruth Mosalski for WalesOnline points out that Cardiff’s Civic Society has claimed that Cardiff Council “ignores the public.” Many residents of the city are worried about these development plans and have voiced their concerns. It is not only because of the threatened destruction of the countryside and the wildlife it is a home to that is causing worries, but also because of the very real problem of traffic. Roads into and out of the west of Cardiff are already experiencing traffic chaos and adding another 6,000 houses and a potential 10,000 more cars can only acerbate the problem turning it into an absolute nightmare. Cardiff simply does not have the roads in place to cope with the increased traffic.

Increased traffic causes increased air pollution too. At present, the growth of lichen and mosses on tree trunks and walls throughout the city shows that the air quality has improved, but a dramatic increase in the number of vehicles using Cardiff’s overburdened roads will halt and reverse this, as well as being a known cause of ill-health for people.

There is a solution

There is no denying that people need somewhere to live and that more housing should be built. However, none of the problems the Plasdwr development will create have to exist because a viable solution already exists. As Williams points out in the video, there are brownfield sites in Cardiff where houses can be built instead. Also there are empty buildings that could be used to provide housing. He asks concerned residents to get in touch with their AMs and local MPs and to put in their complaints.

Councillor for Radyr & Morganstown Community Council and Plaid Cymru candidate for Radyr and Morganstown, Michael Deem, is campaigning against the destruction of the green belt, and so is Neil McEvoy, who is Assembly Member For South Wales Central at Y Senedd and County Councillor for Fairwater.

Contact: MikeDeemPlaid@gmail.com Twitter: @MichaelDeemPC  

Visit: caerdydd.plaid.cymru

Say NO to Plasdwr, Save Our Green Fields!

Kenfig Pool and Kenfig Sand Dunes

Kenfig Pool (Photo: Public Domain)

I was thinking about places in the countryside that I remember from my childhood and thought I would like to tell you about Kenfig Pool and the sand dunes there. My parents used to take me to this amazing place when I was a boy. We used to go on lots of days out, visiting the countryside. My dad had a blue Vanguard car and this is what we would go out in. Mum and Dad were always encouraging when it came to my interest in nature and they used to buy me lots of books. I had most of the Observer’s Books.

Observer's Books (Photo: Wikipedia, Fair use for illustrative purposes)

I had the Observer’s Book of British Wild Flowers, and the book on fungi and British birds, and wild animals, and freshwater fish, and even the Observer’s Book of Mosses and Liverworts. That last book was given to me when I was only five, and I know that because it has survived and is at my Dad’s house still, I think, and it is signed to me in the front for my “Fifth birthday.”

Anyway, one place we used to go which I really used to love was Kenfig. It is near Porthcawl but much wilder. There is a big lake called Kenfig Pool and miles and miles of sand dunes.

These dunes have rough paths through them and eventually you can get to a long sandy beach by the sea. It takes well over an hour, as I remember it, to get from the carpark to the beach. But the walk is the real fun of it all. There were so many wild flowers I could look out for and insects and newts and frogs and toads, lizards too.

Kenfig Pool

There were temporary pools that formed in the dunes and they had boggy bits around them with sphagnum moss and bog myrtle. I used to love the smell of marshy ground, especially if there was water mint that added its aroma if you stepped on it or brushed by it as you were walking. In these pools there were newts and water beetles and other water insects. I was always fascinated by water, by ponds, streams and rivers, and rock pools when we went to beaches. I used to wear my Wellingtons so I could investigate the watery places without getting my feet wet, though often I did get water in my boots and my Mum used to get mad at me because of this.

Part of the fascination was I never knew what I would find. I was exploring. It was like it stirred some sort of instinct to hunt for life; I was a hunter-gatherer boy. In those days, I was forever turning stones over, looking under boards and corrugated iron on waste ground, wading around in muddy ponds, seeing what I could catch in rivers and streams, and exploring the railway bank behind where we lived. Nature was my world. It meant much more to me than people and the human world and I hated school.

Viper's Bugloss (Photo: Public Domain)

But getting back to Kenfig, one of the reasons I was so excited by the place was because there were rare wild flowers to be found there. I used to like looking up plants in my wild-flower books. I used to always be on the lookout for new species and hoping I would discover something really rare. Wintergreen, hound’s tongue and many types of orchids were some of the rare plants that grew at Kenfig Dunes. I used to find blue viper’s bugloss and pink centaury and also we used to look out for dewberries, a type of blackberry that grew in the dunes. We used to collect them and take them home so Mum could make pie which we used to have with custard. I used to love eating blackberry pie and custard or just stewed blackberries and custard.

Often I used to go on ahead of my family, or be lagging behind them, as we made our way over the dunes. I was always investigating some marshy ground, turning over any boulders or rubbish I found or searching in the vegetation. I remember there were some parts where you could find common lizards. They would bask on bits of discarded iron sheeting and on boards and other rubbish that littered the dunes even then….this was back in the early 1960s.

Great Green Grasshopper (Photo: Pixabay/Public Domain)

I used to try and spot great green grasshoppers too. These insects are, as their name suggests, very big, the size of locusts. They lived in some parts of the dunes and you could hear them singing but they are really difficult to find. The insects blend in so well with the vegetation and they stop singing as soon as you get anywhere near them. Most frustrating!

Often I found young toads and they seemed happy in the sandy soil. I remember thinking about natterjack toads I had read about in my books. They liked habitats like this but were very rare and didn’t live in South Wales but that didn’t stop me dreaming I would find them there.

Six-Spot Burnet (Photo: Pixabay/Public Domain)

There were lots of butterflies too. Wall butterflies, meadow browns, common blues, small coppers, small heaths and the colourful day-flying moths known as burnet moths. Many of these types of butterfly you hardly ever see in Britain today. It has always depressed me to watch wildlife vanishing. I never thought it would happen when I was younger. I mean, you don’t think about these things. You think everything will always be there somehow.

In spring though it was amazing because that is when there were most wild-flowers in bloom and the ponds were full of water. At this time too, if you happened to get there at the right time, it was possible to see thousands of adult toads making their way to Kenfig Pool. They used to use the lake to breed in and I remember seeing these amphibians all over the ground on the shores of the lake and in the water around the edges. many of them were mated pairs, in what naturalists call amplexus, where the male toad grasps the female with his arms round her and rides on her back.

Common Toad (Photo: Public Domain)

I used to like the idea of how wild it felt once you got away from the road and ‘civilisation.’ It was just miles of sand dunes covered in marram grass and other plants that tolerated the sandy soil, the sky above and hardly a soul ever in sight. Most people stayed in the car-park, few ventured into the dunes and were prepared to make the long trek.

When we were getting near the beach area you could tell. There were visible signs if you knew what to look out for. The sand got more so, less covered in vegetation, and new plants appeared.  The weird and prickly sea holly and sea spurge, food-plant for the rare spurge hawk moth. It was a moth I always hoped to someday see but never did. It is funny how we can live in expectation of some dream coming true, even though it is very much against the odds. It seems easier to do this when you are younger.

Gatekeeper on Sea Holly (Photo: Pixabay/Public Domain)

In this part of Kenfig it was like a zone, a border between the dunes and the beach, a place where different plants would grow. Then there was the top of the beach proper with rotting seaweed, bladderwrack with sandhoppers underneath it. I always used to enjoy moving the weed and seeing the hundreds of little crustaceans jumping about and seeking cover. It fascinated me how they all lived under these piles of seaweed.

Sandhoppers

So Kenfig was very much a part of my childhood and early teens. I don’t know what it is like today, probably spoiled to some degree. Most of my life and growing up I bore witness to seeing places I loved in the countryside getting ruined. I am sure you know what I mean, I mean watching places get built all over, ponds drained, roads built etc etc. Reminds me of the Joni Mitchell song: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” But the wild places are still there in my head, in my memories, and are very much a part of what has made me as I am.

Footnote: This is the slightly edited first chapter of an unpublished book I began writing. More chapters will appear in future blogs.

Forest Farm and Glamorganshire Canal are Great Places for Nature

Forest Farm Reserve and the Glamorganshire Canal

Photo: Steve Andrews

Just on the outskirts of Cardiff lies a wonderful area for nature that I have been visiting since I was a boy. I am talking about Glamorganshire Canal and the Forest Farm Nature Reserve, which offer long stretches of freshwater, pools and wetland habitats, forests and fields.

Photo: Steve Andrews

There are several ways to get there but I usually walk up through Hailey Park in Llandaff North and continue along Ty-Mawr Road that goes past the old Melingriffith Tin and Iron Works and the old water wheel which is still there as a relic of the South Wales industrial past. The Melingriffith Works that were founded sometime before 1750, closed in 1957.  At the end of the road you reach the end of Velindre Road, which is part of the suburb of Whitchurch.

Here you can either go into the Forest Farm reserve or wander along the banks of the canal, which ends below Tongwynlais and in the area of the Coryton Interchange. It is also possible to get there by crossing the River Taff from Radyr.

Herons and Kingfishers

Photo: Steve Andrews

Birdwatchers can easily spot herons in this area and if lucky you can get a glimpse of the kingfisher too as it hunts for prey in the waters of the canal. I remember seeing one there many years back and it inspired me to write a song, aptly entitled "Kingfisher."

Mallard ducks are very common here and can be seen on the Glamorgan Canal and on the feeder which runs alongside it, as are moorhens. Water rail, snipe, dippers and reed warblers are also reported from Forest Farm Reserve. Even the elusive bittern have been seen here.

Photo: Steve Andrews

Beech and Oak

Beech and oak are the main trees that grow alongside the Glamorganshire Canal and in the Long Wood. Some of the trees are said to be 200 years old. In autumn the dead leaves in their brown and golden autumnal shades can be seen coating the ground and floating on the canal’s surface.

Common Toads

Common toads gather to spawn in the canal in springtime, and I remember when some ponds many miles away on the banks of Llandaff Weir were destroyed many years ago. I remember seeing toad tadpoles in the canal that year and wondered if it was possible that some of the displaced toads had somehow found the canal even though it was miles away. I often wonder what amphibians do when they return to spawning grounds to find them gone.

Grass Snakes

I have seen grass snakes swimming in the Glamorgan Canal too. It is good to know these once much more common reptiles, have found a home here.

Waterlilies

In summer the surface of a lot of the Glamorgan Canal is covered by the large rounded leaves of the yellow water lily. However, when I recently visited in late autumn they had all died back. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed my recent walk along this canal that is an interesting place to visit all year around.

Photo: Steve Andrews

Why Tenerife is a paradise for naturalists

Tenerife is a naturalist’s dream

Tenerife forested mountains

Tenerife is a popular island in the Canary Islands for tourists who spend their holidays there but it is also every naturalist’s dream. With its forests, mountains, semi-desert areas, cliffs, sand dunes and range of beaches there is a real diversity of habitats. There are so many types of countryside on the island, and also a range of very different microclimates. This is why so many forms of flora and fauna can be found there, both endemic species and introduced and naturalised plants and animals.

Laurel Pigeon (Photo: DrPhilipLehmann)

There are two main sorts of forests: pine forest and ancient evergreen laurel forest. The latter of these is very important because the patches of this type of woodland that still stand on Tenerife and some of the other Canary Islands are some of the only remaining stretches of this form of forest in the world. Rare birds, such as the laurel pigeon (Columba junoniae) and endemic plants like the Canary Islands foxglove (Isoplexis canariensis) can be found in the laurel forests.

Viper's Bugloss species

Red Bugloss

Tenerife has a very great range of species in the Echium genus of viper’s bugloss. The most spectacular species is the red bugloss or Teide bugloss (Echium wildpretii), which as its name suggests has red flowers that form in tall spikes, and it is found growing high on Mt Teide where there is a very extreme habitat. Because it is so high the sunlight is very strong but it gets very cold at night. The ground is dry and rocky and it looks like another planet in the Tenerife highlands.
There is a shortage of naturally occurring freshwater in Tenerife because it drains quickly into the ground and down to the sea after it rains but this has not prevented a fascinating selection of freshwater creatures and water birds being found on the island. Many species of dragonfly, two species of frog and the mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) mainly depend on the reservoirs and irrigation tanks used by farmers for collecting water for their crops. The frogs, by the way, are the Mediterranean tree-frog (Hyla meridionalis), and the Iberian water frog (Rana perezii). In the village of Erjos, however, there are some large ponds that formed after the topsoil was removed many years ago. These pools attracted all sorts of wildlife and make a wonderful area for appreciating nature and walking in the surrounding hills and forests. 

Grey Heron

The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a bird that uses natural and artificial freshwater pools to search for fish and frogs and is often seen on the island. It will also take goldfish from ornamental ponds in parks and gardens.

Tenerife has lizard species, two types of gecko and a skink but no snakes, despite having excellent habitats for these reptiles.

Monarch butterfly

There are many interesting insects to be found on the island. A butterfly to look out for is the monarch (Danaus plexippus). It was able to colonise the Canary Islands because the tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is often grown in gardens, flower borders and parks. This large and beautiful butterfly can be seen flying all year round and is most often seen in cities, towns and resorts where its caterpillar’s food-plant grows in gardens. The massive and strange looking death’s head hawk moth and its larva are often found on Tenerife. This moth gets its name due to the skull-like marking on its thorax. The fact that it can squeak too has added to its weirdness and has made it the subject of various superstitions. The caterpillars are very big and feed mostly on thorn-apple (Datura stramonium), which is a very common weed on the island, and also on the shrub Lantana (Lantana camara).  There are also some species of praying mantis that can be found on Tenerife.

Mantis

Botanists will be excited by the very large number of succulents that grow wild on Tenerife. There are many endemic species of Aeonium and Euphorbia. The Canary Island spurge (Euphorbia canariensis) looks more like a cactus and grows in large clumps on arid and rocky ground around the island.

Look out too for the prehistoric-looking dragon trees (Dracaena draco), which can still be found occasionally growing wild but are very rare. They are much more commonly seen in parks and gardens around Tenerife, and there is the famous “Drago Milenario,” said to be 1,000-years-old that is in its own park in Icod de los Vinos.

If you are interested in wildlife you will find plenty to interest you wherever you are on the island.

Clay plant pots versus plastic pots

Clay pots or plastic pots? 

Plant in plastic pot (Photo: Public Domain)

We all know well that there is too much waste plastic polluting the environment, filling the oceans, and killing wildlife, so anything which can help cut down our use of the material has got to be good news.  I have been thinking about how many plastic pots and containers for growing plants in get sold every day and how many of these containers are in use. It must be a a mind-boggling number when you consider how many of these pots are on sale in supermarkets, hardware stores and gardening centres.  Nearly all of that plastic is eventually going to end up in landfill sites or in the environment somewhere!

Clay pots (Photo: Public Domain)

I remember the days when there were only clay or terracotta pots. I prefer them too. The clay pots breathe and don't allow water-logging to occur, which can easily happen with plastic containers. Admittedly the clay pots can crack and break but broken pieces of pot make great drainage material to be put in the bottom of another pot you are getting ready to plant something in. It used to be standard practice to use up broken pots this way.

Clay pots showing mineral deposits (Photo: Public Domain)

The only other minor disadvantage of clay pots is that because they are porous they can absorb minerals that leach out of the compost and the water used for plants growing in them. This can create whitish powdery deposits on the outside of the clay pot.  It can be washed off, however.

Clay pots for tropical fish

I remember using clay pots when breeding tropical fish species. A clay pot makes a great spawning site for many types of fish, including cichlids such as the Kribensis cichlid (Pelvicachromis pulcher), which is a very popular and easily bred species.

Kribensis (Photo: Aquakeeper 14)

Many types of fish will accept a clay pot as an artificial cave and hiding place. many will make these containers their homes and will defend them from other fish. 

Buying clay pots

Unfortunately it has become a lot more difficult to find places that sell clay pots. I am lucky where I live in Portugal because the clay pots are on sale alongside the plastic ones, even at major supermarkets. I know the type of pot I choose to buy.

If enough people refused to buy the plastic containers and asked for old-fashioned clay ones then the manufacturers would be forced to supply us with clay pots not plastic pots.

Watering cans  (Photo: Public Domain)

Plastic is not just used for our plant pots because even watering cans are now made of the material.  Seems crazy how a can can be made of plastic not metal, don't you think?

Habitat destruction is a very serious threat to the survival of many species

What local habitats have you seen destroyed? 

If, like me, you are very concerned about the vanishing wildlife around the world and the increasing threats to so many species of flora and fauna, you will know that habitat destruction is one of the main threats that plants and animals face.  I expect there are places you can remember that have been destroyed by housing developments, urban expansion, new roads, and other forms of 'progress'. What local wildlife habitats can you recall that are no longer there? 

Common Lizard (Photo: S Rae)

One location in Fairwater, Cardiff, I spent a lot of time in as boy I used to call the “Coal Yard.” It was actually an abandoned railway siding on the other side of the railway line that ran parallel to the lane that backed onto the house where I lived with my family.  High steel railings blocked access to it from a field that was on one side and a road with another fence of metal railings was at its bottom. The only easy way in was going over the railway bank and railway line. This left the Coal Yard like a mini nature reserve where few people ever went.

Female Wall Brown (Photo: Jorg Hempel)

I used to cross the railway to get there and would discover all sorts of flowers and creatures living in the Coal Yard, including common lizards (Zootoca vivipara), small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus), common blue (Polyommatus icarus) and wall brown (Lasiommata megera) butterflies, and rest harrow (Ononis spinosa) and bird’s foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) wild flowers. All were common enough species then, though the wall brown is one of the British butterflies that has suffered an alarming decline.

Rest Harrow (Photo: Public Domain)

For many people, the Coal Yard was just some waste ground at the side of a railway line but for me it was a wildlife habitat that has been destroyed. To the creatures and plants that were there it was home. To a property developer it was somewhere houses could be built and money to be made. Nowadays it is the site of blocks of flats and neatly tended lawns.

Ponds at Llandaff Weir

A pair of Common Toads (Photo: Public Domain)

There were two ponds on the banks of Llandaff Weir that were once home to many forms of aquatic wildlife, including common frogs (Rana temporia), common toads (Bufo bufo) and the common newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) and palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus). The frogs and toads bred in the larger of the ponds, which was also home to various dragonfly and damselflies, water snails, water beetles, and the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Sticklebacks (Photo Public Domain)

I use the past tense because these ponds were destroyed when the bank of the river was bulldozed flat. I cannot be sure of the reason given in the local press for this but I seem to remember it was supposedly to improve the bank with a view to a new pathway or road that was planned. All I knew for sure was that these two pools were where I used to find all the creatures mentioned. It was there home. It had been destroyed and it saddened me. I remember wondering where all the amphibians would go when they returned in spring to their breeding places to find they had gone. There was no freshwater suitable left, only the river which was too fast and polluted for the frogs, toads and newts. I have often wondered where do amphibians go when they find a place they have known is no longer there? What goes through their little minds?

Now, it can be said, that all the species I have mentioned were common species, but that is not the point. The problem is, and it is a big problem, is that the more habitats like these, that get destroyed, the less places the wildlife can live.

Both these locations, the Coal Yard and Llandaff Weir, were within a short distance of each other, probably about a mile. I point this out to show how wildlife habitat destruction is cumulative. That is just two examples of what has gone from where I lived as a boy. Multiply this sort of destruction all over the country and you have a main reason that many types of wildlife are endangered.

This is why it is so important that nature reserves are set up and maintained and that, if we have gardens, that we leave plenty of room for wildlife. A garden pond can be just what a toad, frog or newt needs for its survival.

Here is a good example of a threatened wildlife habitat so please sign the petition!