Efforts to conserve the coastal slopes (From Western Telegraph)

Efforts to conserve the coastal slopes

Ferry company Stena Line and the National Park Authority have teamed up in the final scheme of the Parks three-year Conserving the Coastal Slopes project, which has just ended.

A large acreage of the cliff land owned by Stena has become the 50th area to be taken into the project. The land, above Fishguard Harbour, covers some 5 hectares (37 acres) and has over recent decades become thickly covered with undergrowth.

The site was recently visited by Stena Lines port manager, Roy Harries, and National Park chief executive, Nic Wheeler, who were joined by local residents and staff members of the National Trust and Park Authority. Local people remember the area looking very different and being much more open. The growth of bramble and gorse over the years has made the site almost inaccessible, and smothered the variety of plants which live there. The undergrowth has also concealed a rich legacy of archaeological features, including Bronze Age cairns and fields and a 19th century rabbit warren.

The National Parks Coastal Slopes project has begun management of the area to tackle the various problems. The key has been to introduce grazing animals, in this case Welsh Mountain ponies on loan from the National Trust, which will help control the undergrowth. Residents from nearby Harbour Village are proving invaluable to the project by helping to keep an eye on the ponies.

The National Park has also cut swathes through the vegetation to encourage the ponies away from the Coast Path, and has stockproofed the area with a kissing gate and fencing, which have been sited to be the least visible as possible.

CAPTION Pictured on the Stena Line land above Fishguard Harbour are, left to right: Haydn Garlick and Robert Young, National Trust; Nic Wheeler, National Park chief executive: Roy Harries, port manager, Stena Line; Jenny Roberts and John Davies, local residents; Geraint Jones, Julie Webber and Tom Humfrey, National Park Authority. PICTURE: National Park.