Work starts to breathe new life into Wales’ sand dune systems

After years of becoming over-stabilized and overgrown by vegetation, with some rare plants and insects driven to the brink of extinction, work is now starting to rejuvenate Wales’ sand dunes.

Excavation slack photo by Clive Hurford ©CCW

Thanks to Welsh Government funding, a pilot project starts this month at Kenfig National Nature Reserve. The aim is to create new areas of bare, open sand dunes which will help wildlife thrive and stop the devastating loss of stunning coastal flowers such as Fen Orchids which make our dunes so special. Other declining flora such as round leaved-wintergreen, marsh helleborine and early marsh orchids will also benefit from the work that’s being carried out at Kenfig.

And it’s not just wildlife that will benefit – naturally mobile sand dunes provide a more dynamic coastal defence system which can adapt to storms and sea level change. They are also fantastic landscapes and great places for recreation.

This week, bulldozers are moving on to Kenfig National Nature Reserve to get the sand moving once again. By enlarging existing blow-outs near the mouth of the Afon Cynffig, sand will start to move inland within the dune system so that bare and sparsely vegetated young dunes and dune slacks start to form once again.

Plantife’s Andy Byfield who is managing the work says "The diggers at work may look aggressive, but the management is clearing away the thick thatch of choking grasses, to reveal a bare and moist sandy seed bed for rare and colourful flowers to reseed into. Over the coming decade we expect swathes of orchids to recolonise lost ground, bringing colour to the dunes, and restoring Kenfig to its former glory as one of Europe's most magnificent havens for sand dune wildlife".

If successful, the approach could be applied to other sand dune systems along the Welsh coast. The project is being managed in joint partnership with Bridgend County Council, the Countryside Council for Wales, and Plantlife.

Scott Hand, the Countryside Council for Wales’ officer for Kenfig said: “Because sand dunes around the Welsh coast have become more stable over the last 50 years, we have lost 64% of areas of open, mobile sand dunes, eliminating the conditions necessary for the special wildlife of dunes to flourish.

“Just two per cent of the dune system at Kenfig is now bare sand, down from about 40% in the mid 1940’s. It shows just how much the reserve has become overgrown and heavily vegetated.”

Bridgend County Council Kenfig Reserve Manager, David Carrington stated: 'The communities of plants and animals special to dune landscapes thrive on a regime of periodic disturbance and recovery. This disturbance has historically been caused by extreme storms and periods of wind erosion but for the last sixty years or so, the wind speeds seem to have reduced and the dunes have stopped moving. This pioneering work, using machines to copy what the extreme weather has done in the past, could prove a vital life-line for several of our most endangered plants and insects.'

CCW is grateful to the Kenfig trustees for their support with this work, which is taking place well away from property and poses no risks to people's interests.

The work at Kenfig will build on previous work by Bridgend County Borough Council, which manages the NNR. The reserve team has already opened up small areas of bare sand and for the past 20 years they have tackled coarse vegetation by mowing. Cattle now graze the northern dunes.

Kenfig National Nature Reserve is also a Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest. This management work is being undertaken with due regard to habitats and species of national and international importance, with the aim of improving their condition.

Alongside the project at Kenfig, the Welsh Government funding also enables CCW to commission a study of 10 major sand dune sites around the Welsh coast, to identify areas that need rejuvenating. Together with the trial at Kenfig, this could lead to a recommendation for similar work in other Welsh sand dune systems in the future.

Ends.

NOTES TO EDITORS

DV footage of the work taking place and interviews are available on request.

For more information contact: CCW Press Officers Helen Evans on 01248 387377 or 07717225589, or Brân Devey on 02920 772403 / 07747767443. Justina Simpson, Plantlife, on 07584 995 929.

Andy Byfield, Plantlife, is co-ordinating the work at Kenfig. The project is managed by Dr Mike Howe, CCW Invertebrate Ecologist.

This work was funded by the Welsh Government, Countryside Council for Wales, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Million Ponds, Biffaward, and Environment Wales.

The Countryside Council for Wales is a Welsh Government Sponsored Body, working for a better Wales where everyone values and cares for our natural environment www.ccw.gov.uk.