Littoral dunes, hibernacula and a renewing lake
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Chris Griffiths was responsible for forest areas in Newborough, Pentraeth, Penllyn and Beddgelert during the 1980s.
He recalls a need, during the early years of the forest, to protect the young trees from encroaching sand and sea via the establishment of two to three miles of littoral fencing above the high-water mark, but not too far into the forest. “The fences were of a crude nature,” he says. “Built in October/November, they were basically poles some 12-15 feet high, pushed into the sand, and the spaces infilled with brush.”
After a couple of years, the sand would pile up against the fences, creating artificial dunes. The team would then build another brush fence above the original ones, and so on until the entire height of the poles were covered by tall, long artificial dunes.
To help establish the sand already in the forest, Bob Griffiths (no relation to Chris) arranged to pick up grass cuttings from roadside maintenance crews to use as a ‘thatch’ to stabilise the shifting sand. It worked – and also brought numerous other plant species to the forest, which may have helped in creating the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). As Chris comments: “The forest now had plants that theoretically shouldn’t be there.”
Chris became project team leader for a new forest project in 1986/7 – the creation of the artificial Llyn Parc Mawr lake. It was to be Wales’ contribution to the European Year of the Environment 1987-1988.
Four boreholes were dug on the four hectares of land proposed for the lake, to monitor water levels: “To our amazement, the bore holes held water through the year, at various levels. We started creating the lake in January 1988 and finished by March 1988. People thought we were mad!”
As Chris explains, the lake was created by the removal of 43,000 cubic metres of sand. “It was a major problem to get rid of,” he says. “So we fell swathes of trees and filled the areas with sand to make artificial dunes.”
In addition to a walk around the shore (out of sight of the birds), the project included
two hides and a hibernacula (bat chamber). Chris adds that there was nothing in the water to attract birds and wildlife, so more than 40 straw bales were bought from local farmers and planted into holes dug in the floor of then-dry lake, to give a kick-start to the process of creating some sort of food for wildlife: “It worked, and birds nested in the first season.”