Viewing entries tagged
Moorland

Beacons Air Lift

If you're following me on Facebook or Twitter, you would have read already that on Wednesday I got the pleasure of exploring the mountains of Talybont in a Helicopter as part of a project to repair erosion on the local moorland. The task required traffic control, both on the ground and on the mountain, which was surprisingly busy considering we were in the middle of nowhere. 

I was lucky in that I got the upland part of the challenge which meant riding up and down in the Helicopter. I was also lucky enough to be able to bring my camera and phone from which I got just about enough footage to put together a little video for you all to watch. As you can see in the video, the bags being transported were pretty large and full with stone, soil and surprisingly water, which added excess weight that did make it pretty challenging for the Helicopter. 

We managed 38 passes which, given the conditions, was pretty impressive. The ending was a bit sketchy with fog getting too thick for the pilot to find us on the mountain top, he actually had to ditch the last load of rocks further down the mountain to make sure he had the best chance in bringing us back down. Either way, the day was very successful but still lots more bags to go up.

I had a fantastic time, it was my first time in a Helicopter and hopefully not my last. It is a great project and for a great cause, we need to look after our uplands / Moorlands. It's taken hundreds of years to form the way they are and our moorlands are our first defence from flooding. 

14.09.16 - Brecon Beacons National Park air lifting stone to repair upland erosion along beacon path

Save Our Moorland!!

Forgive me for expressing a bit of anger, but what gives anyone the right to destroy our moorland for selfish pleasures? It infuriates me to see 4x4 vehicles tear this specialist habitat apart like its nothing. If only people were educated in the right way, maybe then they'd realise just how much damage they were causing. It's destruction will be felt for 100's of years down the line as once the peat is exposed on the moorland it can take generations and generations for it to re-heal itself and may not heal at all! It will take hundreds of years to fix the damage that took these idiots 5 minutes to cause. Measures have been implemented to try and stop them, some of which you can see in the photo below. The middle access point has been blocked but as you can see, you block 1 access point and they create another 2. How can we stop this activity from destroying our Moorland? Well, I think I know just the thing and I'll be focusing heavily on that this year and for however long it takes to secure our moorland. If there is one hope in all this, it's that I'm aware of it and I won't rest until my local moorland and many others are secured. 

Many of our ground nesting birds have already been effected by habitat loss and persecution and if it continues, the iconic sound of our uplands will forever be lost. Today only a few Skylarks were present when the skies used to be full of them. I honestly don't think that these people realise just how delicate our landscape is. We hold the power to both destroy and maintain and if we don't take action now, we will let a small handful of people decide the fate of our moorland for generations to come. Listen to the short recording below, now imagine the sound of 12 motorbikes, gunshots and 4x4's doing donuts in the background. Between that and plane noise, we've lost what once was a place of peace, tranquility and solitude and replaced it with the sound of neglect and sadness as the wheels churn up everything special about Wales.

Between that and fly-tipping, our uplands are really paying a heavy price. Take this picture below. I'm sure the frogs don't mind the extra cover but in reality, rubbish like this can cause a list of problems and especially in high quantity like this. The frogspawn in the top left is in the only art of the pond that was clear; the rest being a pile of rubbish. 

I'm beginning to think that people just don't care for our land anymore. Perspectives need to change and that really has to come from the Government. Higher and more frequent fines need to be dished out and vehicles need to be seized. It's time we stand up for our forgotten landscape and start paying attention to the details in life that actually matter.