Wandering cows, sea salt, and courting gulls
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After learning Forestry Management at Capel Curig, Peter Evans got his first posting in Newborough in 1958, was posted away in 1962, and returned to Newborough again as Assistant Forester (working under Bob Griffiths) from 1969-1982.
As Peter recalls, before the forest was planted, the area had been grazed by Owen Pritchard, Ty’n Rallt’s cows (who would wander as afar as the Malltraeth estuary), and used by the army during the war.
By 1958, although planting of the eastern side of the forest had been completed, the western side of the forest had yet to be planted, and to prepare the ground the men carried roadside trimmings to be “spread like a skin across the sand.” The following year, planting started along the Penrhos beach side of the forest, a cold wind-blown area as Peter recalls: “We were in the teeth of the wind there.”
Brushwood fences were created to hold the sand on the shore. “Spruce was best,” says Peter. “It was laid in the sand, and as the wind lifted the sand, the fence would stop the sand’s energy and trap it in the fences.”
Marram grass was also planted to stabilise the dunes, but it had to be kept away from the sea water, so lime grass (which had no such problem) was sometimes planted first to establish a foothold. Within two years, the area was completely planted with trees, which completed the forest planting plan.
“There were some unique challenges, including the salt and sand,” says Peter. “We grew our Corsican pine tree seedlings at one of the three nurseries, from seeds collected in Europe. The two-year-old seedlings would be planted out, but there was no shelter for the young trees, and the salt and wind tested them and would ‘scorch’ the trees, turning them redish in colour.”
In addition to the rabbits that ate the young seedlings (and were trapped and shot), another problem was the 2,000 pairs of nesting herring gulls that invaded the area in 1959: “There were so many of them, they would trample the young seedlings.” Peter describes how the males would also fight, and make a pre-flight display of twigs, or present such twigs to the females as a courting gift. They were occasionally shot, but it was botulism and the newly-arrived foxes that finally got rid of them.
Eventually, some trees had to be harvested. “We measured and marked the trees, and they were sold to merchants. Harry Hamer from Dwyran bought a lot,”, recalls Peter. The trees were taken down by chainsaw, and then dragged out by tractor or horses, and thus the continuous cycle of life of the forest was established.