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…
Many of you who follow my blog will be familiar with the beautiful photographs I often post by Mike Alexander. I’m very proud to announce that my brother Rod has built a website called Scapeimages.com to host hundreds of Mike’s stunning photographs, where they can be bought, licensed and downloaded, or simply enjoyed by browsing through such a fantastic catalogue of work!
I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s about time that Mikes wonderful work is available to the world! Do your senses a favour and have a look 🙂
Not a bad place to wander down to when the storm subsides (it’s been very wild here lately)
I just had to show you these beautiful photographs by Mike Alexander of the puffins on Skomer Island. I find the colours of the birds and the ocean just mesmerising.
