Socks and sea squirts

Carpet sea squirts (Didemnum vexillum) from Japan are moving around the world, presumably hitching rides on boats. In the UK there are currently nine known sites from the Solent to the Clyde, including Holyhead Marina. But Holyhead is the only site where pioneering action is being taken, by the Countryside Council for Wales, to repel the invasion.

They are bad news for our native species, likely to out-compete and smother them in a colonial carpet, hence the name carpet sea squirt. The commercial catalyst for taking action at Holyhead is the proximity and threat to the rich mussel beds of the Menai Strait from which five times the annual UK consumption is exported.

Leathery piece of carpet sea squirt

Considerable work has been done over the past couple of years to eradicate the squirts and I recently met up with the team of eight divers surveying the marina. The good news is that the vast majority of the squirts have been killed off with just a few surviving patches confined to chains that anchor the pontoons to the ocean floor.

The next step is to treat the chains before this season’s larvae are released and this will involve wrapping 150 chains in polythene and bleach. Typically the chains are about five metres long and the bleach powder will be packed into socks – about three socks per chain. So, if you are serving at a shop where someone approaches with a trolley of 225 pairs of socks, you will know that it’s not some sort of fetish but conservation in action.

Walking with wolves

Monday 2^nd July meet 12:45 for a 13:00 depart from Tan y Bwlch station on a guided walk into Coed y Bleiddiau, ‘forest of the wolves’, returning via the train leaving Dduallt at 15:30. Four hundred years ago wolves roamed this forest and legend has it that this is where the last wolf in Wales was slain.

In those days the land was owned by the Lloyds of Dduallt and their old house has recently been tree ring dated to 1559. In the census of 1841 there were 52 people living on their 600 acre farm; in the 2011 census there were only 5! Fortunately the land was acquired by the National Trust in the 1960s otherwise this beautiful oak woodland, managed by CCW, would be sitka spruce.

Huw Jenkins (that’s me) will lead this walk on behalf of the Snowdonia Society (Cwmdeithas Eryri). The route through the Maentwrog nature reserve stays close to the railway line but I’ve slashed an off-piste path through the bracken to show you some of my favourite bits.

The woods are full of birds singing away. I’m no bird expert but equipped with BirdVoice (a recent birthday present) we’ll see if together we can identify some of the many songs.

If you wish to join the walk the Snowdonia Society suggests you give them a donation of £2 if you are a member of the society and £5 if not. The one way ticket from Dduallt to Tan y Bwlch can be bought on the train and costs £2.40 or £2.20 for the over 60s. The Ffestiniog Railway have confirmed that the Tan y Bwlch café will be open.

We might see some goats but just in case we don’t, this is what they looked like a couple of weeks ago:

The Snowdonia Society is a registered charity working to protect, enhance and celebrate Snowdonia, its wildlife and heritage. The Society works with local communities, organisations and businesses to achieve this vision.

For full event details or to book a place contact Frances on 01286 685498 or email frances@snowdonia-society.org.uk

Living Wales & the ecosystems approach

Janes Potočnik

‘Resource efficiency is not a choice, it is inevitable. Our choice is whether to develop it now, or whether we wait until we are forced to when critical resources are exhausted and expensive. During the 20^th century the world population grew four times, its economic output 40 times. We increased our fossil fuel use 16 fold, our fishing catches by a factor of 35 and our water use 9 fold. It was called the great acceleration, but I am afraid that we might hit the wall soon. 

The business as usual scenario tells us that we would need three times more resources by 2050. But already 60% of the world’s major ecosystems on which these resources depend are degraded or are used unsustainably. So business as usual is not an option.’ 

Janes Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, 

12^th December 2011.

Here in Wales we recently took part in the UK assessment which showed a much better situation with a mere 30% of our ecosystems damaged! That’s the wake-up call, now we need action and the Living Wales programme may yet save us from ourselves. But what is it? Will it change the way we do things? Will it stop anomalous decisions such as Pembroke Power Station? 

Pembroke Power Station - picture by Martin Caveney

If you want a layman's overview of Living Wales and the ecosystems approach you can click here to read the article published in edition 42 of Natur Cymru.   

It’s not a bog!

I had the pleasure of a guided tour around Cors Erddreiniog which is also known as Cae Gwyn or White Field on account of the marl. This nougat-looking malleable substance is calcium carbonate, deposited by lime-rich springs coursing through the fens. 

It’s looking a real mess at the moment as 25,000 tonnes of top soil is being scraped off the top of an area about the size of 8 or 9 football pitches. All part of a much larger project to restore the Anglesey & Llŷn Fens which is a LIFE project with £3.5 million of European funding.

If you’re chatting with members of the project team don’t say that’s a lot to spend on a bog – they’ll soon put you right and point out the difference between a fen and a bog. Bogs fill from the top whilst fens fill from below.

You can hear the story on Country Focus (Radio Wales, 27^th November) or see the action in this short film below.