The team has expanded at Ynys-hir - welcome to Mark Carter our new Estate Worker joining us for 6 months over the Autumn/Winter period.
Mark got stuck straight away with one of the big focuses over the past few weeks - ensuring the boundary fence lines around the site, in particular Coed Penryn Mawr, one of the larger sections of ancient woodland on the site, are in good condition to house a small number of cattle grazing here over the winter period. The idea is that they will spend their time amongst the habitat munching on the vegetation (brambles and ivy being just a couple of the species they will hopefully graze on) opening up some areas and disturbing others in a more natural way and having a positive effect of the surrounding wildlife.
The first stage of this mammoth task was identifying weak points in the boundary, ideal areas curious cattle might want to explore outside of their permitted boundary. We gathered the materials, took them to the various sites and then finally carried out the work needed.
Some were minor repairs, replacing the odd post (just one of many!)
Other sections needed a little more work. Strengthening of weak points, a broken section of dry stone wall providing an ideal escape point for a inquisitive cow, now with a small section of post and rail fence to deter them.
Other repairs were more substantial, replacing a whole run of posts and wire, as seen here in before and after pictures.
One of the five happy cattle exploring their new environment.