Evanstown Community Nature Reserve
The people of Evanstown are about to begin taking ownership of a new nature reserve on their doorstep. The area of land known as the old ‘Britannic Colliery’ is located on across the boundary of two counties in south Wales valleys, crossing Rhondda Cynon Taff and Bridgend county boroughs.
The site is approximately 100 acres and is situated between two communities, Evanstown (Bridgend) and Gilfach Goch (Rhondda). The two communities will be working in partnership with the Wildlife Trust to develop the land into a community nature reserve.
The site was previously reclaimed from the old Cerdin Colliery during he early 1980’s. Since that time some access improvements were made through a Cyd Coed forestry commission grant, however the community group who has been working with the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (WTSWW) on other projects and has delivered community consultations, family fun day events, clean ups with help from Keep Wales Tidy, outdoor Nordic walking and wildlife walks, is working in partnership with the WTSWW and communities First to develop the Britannic colliery site into a local nature reserve with the land tenure falling under the supervision of the WTSWW.
By working together the Community group, EVO (Evanstown Voluntary Organisation) will be able to work in parallel with the WTSWW to deliver community volunteering opportunities on the site to restore habitats, create new habitats, provide formal and informal training opportunities and to work more closely with the neighbouring community of Gilfach Goch to create more ‘cross boundary’ partnerships.
Volunteers hard at work on one of the clean ups organised