Man-made rabbit breakfast, leeches and ravens
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There were 30 million young trees raised in the Newborough forest nurseries, recalls Dr Paul E S Whalley, adding it was a nerve-wracking decision which tree species to use for the forest: “Imported Corsican pine from Sicily and South Italy grows by the sea, so there was a reasonable chance it would grow at Newborough, and Monterey pine was also considered.”
The proposed area for the forest was full of sand dunes and rabbits, and while the rabbits’ burrows helped water and air penetrate into the soil, they also exposed the young tree roots.
“The rabbits like to eat some tree roots,” Paul adds. “Juicy young trees were a man-made breakfast for them every day when they came out.”
Rabbit-proof fencing was erected, and the animals were shot. But it never quite worked, because keeping out the rabbits led to trouble with weeds among the young trees.
Down on the foreshore, gangs of men planting Marram grass as well as trees to stabilise the area, at a cost of £100. In 1946, the workforce totalled about six men; by the 1950s, the total was nearer 40 men, recalls Paul. During 1948 and 1971, 16 to 28 hectares were planted annually: “One man could plant about 1200 trees a day, at a 4.5 foot spacing,” explains Paul.
The question might be asked – why plant trees on the sand anyway? As Paul explains: “The advantages included local labour, an open area and relatively easy access. Caterpillars were used until the road was built, and there was also access from shore. The exact reason is probably hidden in the archives, because it was a chance to grow long-term crop on area described, in those days, as ‘wasteland’.”
The tree planting created many changes, not only in the different plants and animals moving into the forest, but in hiding previous vantage points: “There was an old leaflet that mentioned a point from which you could ‘see Snowdon’ because it was on a rocky outcrop,” says Paul. “But the trees have grown so well, you can no longer see the mountain!”
As Paul explains, the whole area is very varied now, with an entirely different environment in the forest than in the dunes: “The sudden change of habitat is how this forest affects wildlife and it can have a tremendous effect on different aspects of it. Before the trees were planted there were merlin and Montagu’s harriers and skylarks… now there’s mistle thrush and crossbill, and tree-living birds. The ravens came in gradually over 10 to 15 years, with their number increased to a roost of 1800.”
He adds there is now a protected medicinal leech in pool in the forest, along with rare orchids that found more favourable places (than the dunes) inside the forest, along with bramble and gorse, and more fungi: “But what you’re losing is the pansies and species for the dune area.”
He concludes: “It really is a Natural History haunt, and it would be a great pity if they cut it down.”