#wtsww

[chloegriffithsecology]

Working with volunteers from the Wildlife Trust South and West Wales, and the Penparcau Community Forum, to clear scrub from the ruins of a farmhouse on Pen Dinas.  We are hoping the lizards and slow worms will continue to be able to use the large stones to bask on this summer.  This kind of habitat improvement work is vital to stop the open area being lost under a blackthorn thicket.  A big thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their Sunday morning.

[chloegriffithsecology]

Happy 5th Birthday to the Aberystwyth Botanical Society! 

It is hard to believe, but this friendly group of local botanists has been going since September 2011, when we were set up by Fay Newbery.  Fay had to leave Aberystwyth to take up a PhD, so the organisation passed to me in December 2011.  A trawl through my archives revealed that we have been on 65 botanical outings and have amassed 117 members!  

We have tremendous support from our County Plant Recorders, Arthur Chater and Steve Chambers, and also from Aberystwyth University staff and lecturers, as well as the many professional and amateur botanists in the county, including many students. 

Each year I aim to offer at least one outing a month, to some of the best spots in the county - in 2017 we will have a trip to the top of a local Iron Age hill fort to learn our grasses, a visit to an old lead mine to see what plants thrive in that environment, and, working in partnership with the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, a plant recording session in the beautiful Cwm Clettwr reserve.