Radnorshire Wildlife Trust (RWT) are set to receive a funding boost for the Wilder Pentwyn project to expand its nature conservation work in the heart of mid-Wales. The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a two-year funded project to protect, restore and share natural heritage knowledge at Pentwyn Farm, a project of Wales-wide significance. The grant award will help RWT forge ahead with its 30-year vision for a Wilder Pentwyn, to transform the land and work with communities and landowners to deliver nature recovery at scale. The 164-acre farm was purchased in October 2021 through an environmental philanthropic loan (lead by We Have The POWER working through the Funding Nature Project), to help deliver goals for nature and climate, while fostering and supporting new ways of economically and truly sustainable land use.
The ground-breaking project at Pentwyn will help deliver a wide range of benefits for wildlife and people and collectively transform the way we support nature’s recovery. The project will promote access, inclusion and support wellbeing while creating a place to share knowledge and help deliver public goods, like regulating water flow and soil health, priorities emerging from future farming schemes, and important outcomes for nature and people. This National Lottery award will mean employing a Project Officer from late 2023 to facilitate community-supported involvement and work with neighbouring landowners and partners to deliver nature and environment goals.
Specifically, the work will include some targeted habitat restoration to help wetland and broadleaf woodland expand more quickly and speed up the return of important natural processes. The landscape will become a mosaic of species-rich grassland, rhos ‘moor’ pasture and scarce friddd habitats embedded within a rich cultural landscape that is resilient for our future for both wildlife and people. The plans will allow species to recover and move unhindered through the landscape. Birds like curlew, whinchat and we hope, hen harrier, will return from surrounding habitats, butterflies like small-pearl bordered and marbled white will colonise newly created sites, and common spotted orchid, marsh marigold, and mountain pansy will emerge from seedbanks exposed from foraging pigs and free-ranging cattle. The grant boost will also help build a dedicated volunteer base, directly involving more people, developing skills and socialising through this exciting project, and allow RWT to connect with people further afield through digital animation and audio soundscapes.
The 30-year vision for the farm is a place for nature and people, transformed into a landscape buzzing with wildlife and a place for people to connect with the natural world, reflect and trial new ways of thinking about land options. RWT have already introduced free-ranging or ‘extensive’ grazing on site with eight Belted Galloway cattle, working with a local grazier to vary plant structure and promote wildflowers, using Nofence collars to track, monitor and ‘digitally herd’ them if required. Gathering information from ecological surveys and environmental DNA sample will improve the knowledge we already have and inform how the land is responding.
Wilder Pentwyn Farm will be a farm where nature is the lead crop. RWT will allow plant diversity and habitats such as scrub, wetland, and broadleaved woodland to recover. This will provide year-around food sources for wildlife as well as cover for shelter and nesting. Most of all the Trust want to see nature increase on the land, draw people in, and give them hope for the future.
Martin Wilkie, Head of Reserves and Land Management for Radnorshire Wildlife Trust: “The National Lottery players have supported a project of national significance, allowing us to collectively make steps towards nature recovery at landscape scale.”
Martin added, “We want to see at least 30% of Radnorshire actively managed for wildlife by 2030, and Radnorshire Wildlife Trust are making a step-change by taking action and allowing nature’s recovery. The Wilder Pentwyn project will use novel approaches that put nature first, on a site that provides landscape and community benefits, and exists alongside the future of farming.”
Pentwyn is currently only accessible via the public rights-of-way whilst Radnorshire Wildlife Trust undertake initial works. However, Radnorshire Wildlife Trust look forward to welcoming people onto the site for guided walks and other events in the near future.
To find out more and support our vision for Pentwyn please visit https://www.rwtwales.org/appeals/wilder-pentwyn-appeal
