Celebrate, enhance, protect

When I think of the Snowdonia Society (Cymdeithas Eryri) these are the three words that come to mind - celebrate, enhance, protect. In pulling together a presentation to set the scene as to what we are about, it was easy to think of examples and images to illustrate the celebrating; guided walks to see wild daffodils, evening talks on local crafts, the dry stone walling competition and so on. Enhancing was also simple; footpath maintenance, planting trees, removal of invasive species and even campaigning for a bus timetable!

But when it came to protecting (‘gwarchod’ yn Gymraeg) I had to pause. If you succeed in protecting, there is nothing to point to apart from the absence of the threat. Alternatively, if the actions to protect were not successful, there is a blot on the landscape that you don’t really want to draw attention to.

Finally I thought of an example and here it is in two pictures .... the pylons going underground across ‘traeth mawr’ and the most beautiful view of Snowdon from the Cob. That’s a good example of protecting something priceless.