Gwynedd

The ancient Forest of Borth y Gest is located above the village. Historically, wood from the site was used for the shipbuilding and leather industries. As a result, where there was once an ancient forest, there were large areas of open space around the current forest with no evidence of the indigenous vegetation. Gwynedd Local Nature Partnership worked with Friends of Borth y Gest to re-establish these 'empty' areas into new habitats - corridors of environmental connectivity that would extend and surround the existing forest.

Historical records indicate that the Borth y Gest forest once covered a much larger area than it does today. A large number of trees were felled for use in the boat building industries and in the local tanneries. Evidence of the fallen trees can be seen around the site to this day. The project started the work of 'filling the gaps’ , working with a local contractor to clear years of growth of ferns and other coarse vegetation. Specialist equipment had to be used for this work due to the nature and location of the site together with the fact that this land is all on steep slopes.

After this initial work was completed, it was seen for the first time exactly how many trees were lost to the old local industrialization. It was noted that there was a 'whole circle' of old woodland that had been cut down leaving a clear void around the original woodland. Measuring the area of land and choosing indigenous native species, the LNP set out to plant close to 4000 trees (including 52 'local' fruit trees in a dedicated orchard). These young trees were protected using dedicated products (Rainbowterra).

Part of the site was also until recently used by the local primary school as a playground. But due to the site's distance from the school, this field is no longer used by the school. By planting over 500 indigenous plants throughout this area, it is hoped that this field will also be able to be transformed into a wildflower habitat, adding to the area that is already managed as wildflowers on the site.

The hope is that over time, the historical voids which were poor in terms of vegetation will be filled with trees and native indigenous plants, creating corridors of valuable habitats within a site that is over 12 hectares in land area.

The site was not very accessible, being somewhat remote, and this led to a shortage of land and timber contractors who could work in such a location. Nevertheless, the LNP collaborated very effectively with the contractors ensuring high quality work in a challenging location in terms of landscape and engineering accessibility.

The timing of such planting must always take place during winter, and there are negative factors of carrying out this work during a season with poor weather. In a location that was difficult in terms of terrain and accessibility, the saturation of the soil made working (especially using machinery) difficult and sometimes impossible.

The hope is that during Year 2 of the project, Friends of Borth y Gest will be able to continue the work, creating additional nature corridors that will lead from the woodland down to the village. Discussions have already taken place to collaborate further with the community, in order to promote habitats and nature corridors in the area and beyond. They also hope to hold public events such as guided tours, and to establish a litter collection group.