We need your help! On the first of January this year, WTSWW entered into a contract with Welsh Government for Glastir Advanced funding on a large number of our nature reserves across our patch.

Glastir is our agri-environment scheme in Wales. The scheme supports farmers to deliver environmental goods and services, including measures to support wildlife. Although the majority of participants in the scheme are farm businesses, the scheme’s environmental focus does mean that the Wildlife Trusts are also well positioned to contribute to its aims. WTSWW signed up this year because of the scheme’s ability to support the work we want to do on our nature reserves.

Our nature reserves are incredibly important to us, and in the past, much of our investment in their management has been funded by a wide range of grants; however, these are now much harder to come by. Significant core investment was also previously provided by Natural Resources Wales, but this is no longer the case, leaving us a significant shortfall to make up for essential work like replacing fences, hedgelaying, mowing meadows, and controlling scrub- all work essential to maintaining the qualify of habitats, but costly in staff time, materials and contractors.

Glastir represents a great opportunity for us, contributing a proportion of the costs for all these important works. In 2019 alone this includes (but is not limited to):

• New bird boxes at Pengelli Forest, Cwm Colhuw, Coed Y Bedw, Coed Simdde Lwyd
• Stock fencing at the Teifi Marshes, Pwll Y Wrach, Pant Da, Coed Garnllwyd
• New dormouse boxes at Rhos Cefn Bryn
• Scrub clearance at Rhos Fullbrook, South Gower Coast, Carmel, Allt Rhongyr
• Management of invasive plants at Parc Slip, Pwll Waun Cynon

Glastir is supporting all these items but, for example, pays only £3.48/m towards the cost of livestock fencing- which, in a sensitive and difficult-to-access nature reserves, regularly costs twice that (or more) to deliver. The additional challenge for WTSWW is that Glastir is a contract- so we have to deliver exactly what we have agreed, even if the full costs are not recovered – we do not have the flexibility to delay works that we might have had in the past. This means that we have to work hard to raise the additional money required to meet this year’s costs.

We are currently hoping to raise an additional £10,000 to deliver our commitments to enhancements on our nature reserves.

You can read more about our Glastir delivery and donate to the appeal here.

On behalf of all WTSWW’s nature reserve managers, thank you for your support!