Sgwrs Dyffryn Peris conversation

Quotes from conversations relating to…

trees

See here for the map of people’s nominations for the oldest tree in the valley

This is a sessile oak tree. Isn’t it amazing how the bark of trees varies as it gets older? When it’s young its bark is shiny – almost silver. You know its an oak tree because it has this cluster of buds at the end of the twigs. Like a little crown. The crown of the woodland. Also the sessile oak buds are sort of pointed, while hazel buds are very ballon-esque, like a balloon.

We’re going to be at the mercy of things like Ash Die Back as much as anywhere. There’s no telling - well there’s a suspicion - it’s been in the system longer than we thought. So it was discovered in 2012 here, the science reakons it could have been in the landscape for 10 years earlier. It was certainly Eastern Europe ten years before that - in Poland for example, in 1990. But if you go back to the early 90s here, when they were planting up Cwm Cadnant. It could have been that that stock, even if it had come from Glyn Llifon, a local council run nursery here, even if they were using local provenance seed, it could have gone across the channel to be grown up over there, and come back with the disease. People who work in the industry have said ‘well that’s what you get when you get in stock from abroad when we could easily have grown it here. Why did we let all our nurseries go?’. Probably the economics of globalism: “if anything is cheaper in money, it’s got to be better”. It’s the illusion of customer choice dictating everything.

The land in that bowl below Moel Eilio - Cwm Derwen - used to have the biggest oaks in Wales.

I don’t know where the oaks originally came from - did people bring them after the last iceage?

We do have virgin forest in this country but very little. There’s a little bit in the Forest of Dean. A few bits and bobs in Scotland. And much of that forest [Coed Padarn] on the other side of the lake [Llyn Padarn] there. Never been built on, never been cut, as it would have been.

More trees would definitely reduce the flooding. There was one thing on that trip advisor article, one person complained the should plant trees either side of the path, because the wind was blowing her hair! But if trees could grow there, they would wouldn’t they?

The reason why, for the last 10 years, trees have been a critical component of upland water management is that a bunch of farmers in Pont Bren, near where the Severn starts, got together to try to sort out various things on their upland farms. One of the conclusions they came to was that trees help hold the water in the landscape. Then they sorted themslves out and got the support of the woodland trust and others. Their example has typified what any sensible approach to upland water management is. They drew in research project after resarch project to look into the percolation and uptake of minterals, the enrichment of biodiversity, the beneficial effects.

What you see if you look at old Victorian photos of the valley, these hills are bare. You look at Cwm y Glo, Llanrug, Llanddeniolen, Llanberis. There are no trees. There are more trees today than 100 years ago. Cwm y Glo was completely devoid of trees. Not a single tree in sight. And now you look at it today – there are photos I have and you can’t see those views anymore.

There are plantations in the valley now. The Fachwen one developed by Lord Newborough in the late 18th early 19th Century.

I’ve noticed that after cutting the forestry, there’s just regen rather than re-planting. Plantations tend to be sitka spruce, not much value - maybe they store carbon, but they should be doing more with forestry than tying up carbon.

All the trees in the valley here [around Nantperis] are about the same age, no regeneration. No under-story, even in the wooded bits.

I’d love there to be a 4-year or even a 10-year exclusion on sheep in different places, just to allow regeneration. Or more nomadic practices, like the systems in Northern Iraq where sheep originally come from, where they take them to a different place every day. That’d allow a bit of regeneration, perhaps some scrub would grow up in places, that would allow trees to grow and would support more wildlife.

My friend asked for help from the forestry to plant some trees on his land. They told him they wouldn’t grow because they are above the tree line. He did it anyway, and now there they are!

The etimological root of the word forest, from German, means ‘living outside of the law’. That’s why forests were cut down - to stop us living outside the law. Lawless places, they don’t want us in there.

There’s some good examples of timber from trees that have come down in storms, or because they are diseased being used locally: Like the cross and candlesticks on the altar in the [Nant Peris] church made from a huge branch of the sycamore in the graveyard that came off in a storm. Wood from a Scotts Pine at Ty Gwyn being used to make the surfaces and shelves in the Vaynol [pub]. Planks from trees in Llanberis being used for decking.

There’s no point worrying about old trees coming down - they will always re-grow! I like to plant trees when I go on a walk. Everyone can do it - just take a few little ones and plant them as you go.

We campaigned to save the trees in the new housing development in Llanberis: They had cut down most of the old oak wood before anyone could stop them. But my son campaigned - there’s some new legislation - and we saved the last old oak. There are 11 houses rather than 12.

There are more trees here [Llanberis] than there were. Lots of young trees coming up around my house.

Some biodiversity changes very slowly, and others, like woodland next door to where I live, there was a woodland habitat and a natural stream. Now there is no woodland there. There’s no habitat. There’s just concrete tarmac and houses, and the stream has been channelized. So that’s a loss of habitat. There’s lots of little losses. Woodland especially. People are so greedy. They want to do their business ventures. They don’t really think about the implications of cutting down a whole woodland of ancient oak trees. I think there was about 17 ancient oak trees. An oak tree takes maybe 200 years to reach maturity. So if you add up 200 x17 that’s how many years were destroyed and released all that carbon. And habitat. And sucking up all that water. Lots of slow worms used to live there. Now there’s nowhere for the slowworms to live now.

Stand here. Experience the vulnerability of being unable to move. Don’t turn to see the voices approaching. The sound of the rain. The stream. But the gales! Fear those. Reach out below ground. Wait. Alone - the others have gone - the young ones may come? (one wish would be to get in [a car] to experience speed along that stretch).

I wonder about trees and flooding – is it worth sticking willow trees in the valley? I was thinking I don’t know what it would look like if it was all covered in trees. It wouldn’t all be covered because there are so many rocks, but I don’t know if I’d like it.

It’s a matter of the right trees in the right places. At Moel y Ci, there’s been growing of hazel coppice in one patch for years. We’ve been thinking its a great resource, for those of us who work with wood. But the farmer, who’s a botanist, he wants it all gone so that the floral and fungal diversity will flourish. Because it doesn’t do well if its too nutrient rich. Somebody mentioned Plant life’s study, ‘Forestry Recommissioned’ in 2011. A whole dicussion of woodland and its affect on plant diversity. Its an amazing great big intelligent study, really accessible, a campaigning document. It says in woodland you need more patches of cleared land - coppicing - to get rid of all the nutrients, kept clear for long enough for the soil to be impoverished enough to release its floral abundance.

I’ve been mapping woodland. Even in Woodland Trust land do not have maps - they don’t know what it is in their woods. How do we end up having a sensible discussion about what needs to be done there without having a map first? 60% of the planting has been ash, and now it is all snapping off, Ash Die Back along the paths. Why did they put the Alder there by the river. There needs to be management.

It’s interesting walking up here and hanging out with you. I don’t think we’ve ever done that. We’ve been for a walk. We’ve sat in a layby or in a café or on a hill top as part of a walk looking at nature. But actually sitting and talking about different parts of the mountain and what’s here and what grows here and what lives here. It sort of plants you in the landscape more. It plants you in the place. and the thing I’ve loved most about coming here is planting those trees [ trees in her garden]. Creating that woodland. Creating a little flower bed. And sometimes I think that’ll be my biggest mark on this planet. That and my gate maybe, if I paint it, because it’s starting to rust.

I’ve certainly got more interested in the cottage and the environment since our little woodland was complete. It just kind of called for it. We just started planting trees. It was just what the land wanted.  I feel very connected to the trees, [my husband] more so, he’s nursed the trees and propped them up and brought stakes for them and been surprised at what grows and what doesn’t grow. Its been lovely to create a little ecosystem. And we’ve started thinking ‘oh wouldn’t it be nice to extend it’. And that makes you think ‘well what’s the best way to extend it?’, and ‘is this the best place to start that kind of project?’ But actually it has been talking to you about – because you’ve sort of embedded yourself – about the community here and the geography and everything else. It makes you begin to see through someone else’s eyes and I think that’s quite important.