Understanding the relationship between nature and how land is used is at the heart of what I do in conservation management planning. Today I was back at historic Dinefwr learning how an ancient deer park…
with ancient trees planted 500 years ago…
that is grazed by the descendants of those first fallow deer…
with a good helping of clean, warm, wet, Welsh air, can provide perfect conditions for lichen communities that can take hundreds of years to become established, and only if conditions are just right…
Once the relationships are understood, making the appropriate management decisions is relatively easy. These rare lichens need light, open conditions on old parkland trees that grow without competition from neighbours or smothering from ivy and scrub. Grazing livestock create these conditions, and a deer park created in the 1700’s is the perfect place to find them.
And lots of other wildlife also benefits, from beautiful woodpeckers, red kites, treecreepers, to tiny beetles living in the dead wood and even tinier yellow meadow ants who make their anthills in the ancient grassland…
Mike Howe 
Thank you for the beautiful walk, Mike!
Such a beautiful landscape and so lively – well woth understanding and preserving. 🙂
Much love,
Steffi
Thank you Steffi I’m glad you enjoyed the stroll in the park 😉 x
What a workplace – like the set of Lord of the Rings! It must really be great to spend so much time outside “naturally” as part of your daily routine.
I have just read some books on sleep research and chronobiology and learned how much our internal clocks have become delayed and turned as into more owlish later chronotypes due to our office-bound and stare-at-computers-late-at-night lifestyle.
Thanks Elke, it is great to be able to go out into places like that and think about how they should be managed. I like the way we have developed a system that listens to and observes nature so that we can adapt our management to fit what is really going on. It’s a much more humble approach to management. And after all that thinking I don’t have any trouble getting to sleep at night! 😉
What wonderful work to be involved in, Mike, and it sounds as if you love it. Stunning photos, too!
It is wonderful Jo thank you 🙂
A very interesting post Mike. Thank you for sharing it. 🙂
Thank you for reading it LuAnn, it certainly is a magical place
A very fine, delicate balance; amazing.
Yes it’s fascinating to learn about and a privilege to be part of helping to look after
It is in the care of good hands 🙂
beautiful post mike –
Thank you Beth, it’s such a fabulous place I just have to share it 🙂
Lichens have always intrigued me. Great post, Mike, very interesting. And gorgeous photographs, as always!
Thank you Karen, yes lichens are fascinating beasties, they seem to operate in a different time and space to the rest of us
What a beautiful place. Thank you for sharing it through your photographs.
It is a beautiful place, thank you Colline 🙂
Wonderful set !!!
Have a nice evening
Thank you Sophie 🙂
It is so interesting told and very beautiful captured. When I see nature shown as in the last picture, it’s like time stands still. Thanks for sharing Mike and Mike 🙂
All the best,
Hanna
Thank you Hanna, your description of the picture is perfect! 🙂
What a wonderful park! Very beautiful photos and your work seems so fascinating!
Thank you Elina, it is a wonderful place and fascinating to work in 🙂
Beautiful post, Mike and Mike, both photos and write-up.
Thank you Anneli, it was a pleasure to be there and to write about it 🙂
A deer park – how very wonderful! fabulous photos. Thank you, Mike and Mike.
Thank you Emilie, I know! A deer park! It’s so nice and you can feel the history there