RHONDDA CYNON TAF ACTION FOR NATURE PLAN
On the acidic upland edge or valley slopes of the Rhondda and Cynon Valleys oak woodland occurs. These are a characteristic feature of Welsh woodlands and deserve special attention. Here stunted Welsh pedunculate oaks hang onto and between exposed boulders of pennant sandstone. Large and ancient ash, downy birch and crab apples are often present, with alder in wet/flushed areas.
There is often a hardly noticeable understorey, partly because many are grazed, with just occasional rowan, holly or hazel. The typical ground flora is grassy with creeping wood soft grass ((Holcus mollis) and wavy-hair grass (Deschampsia flexuosa), but heather and wimberry is often present, forming (on occasions) dense carpets, and wood sorrel, wood sage, dog-violets, enchanter’s nightshade, foxglove, and bluebells are all characteristic wildflowers. The humid environments of these wet upland woods create the ideal conditions for our own temperate rainforests (which west Wales is famous for) with trunks and branches often clothed in mosses, liverworts and lichens, and superb woodland fern gardens often dominating the ground flora. These woods are also important for their autumn fungi.
Associated Species
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Oak
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Wimberry
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Creeping wood soft grass Holcus mollis
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Wavy hair-grass Deschampsia flexuosa
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Heather
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Wood sorrel
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Mosses
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Liverworts
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Ferns
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Pied Flycatcher
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Redstart
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Wood warbler
Glyncornel LNR
Glyncornel Local Nature Reserve is a complex mosaic of woodland types, and is particularly important for its upland oak, old hazel coppice and alder woodland. It survived the industrial revolution in the grounds of a coal managers house but for years, in keeping with woodlands in the rest of the Rhondda Valley it was heavily grazed. It has long been protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve.
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When it was grazed with barely an understorey shrub beneath the oak and alder trees, Glyncornel was home to the classic trio of Welsh woodland song birds, the pied flycatcher, redstart and wood warbler. These ground-feeding birds loved the bare, open ground. It transpires that sheep grazed woodland, that antithesis of good woodland management, can suit these species. However, numbers and sites for all three species have tumbled in RCT. Environmental changes on their migration routes or African wintering grounds may explain part of the decline, but the loss of open ground in our woodlands has also contributed.
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So here is a classic management dilemma. The success of livestock exclusion at Glyncornel has seen extensive natural regeneration and the development of complex under-storey shrub layer. The SSSI woodland features are in favourable condition. The bird fauna has also reacted, and much of the wood now supports a bird assemblage which is much more characteristic of lowland woodland with larger breeding populations of species such as blackbird, robin, chiffchaff and blackcap. However, while the wood warblers hang-on in steeper parts where the ground layer is still open, pied flycatcher and redstart no longer breed. This shows how difficult it can be to balance the interests of different habitats and species in land management decisions. The fencing out of livestock from woodlands to promote natural regeneration works, but in the case of our more upland woods a suit of key species is not suited by the change. The maintenance (or restoration) of sympathetic low intensity livestock grazing in our upland woodlands is therefore a management tool that may deserve consideration. This is a classic example of how our understanding of habitats and habitat management can be changed and influenced by experience and the taking of the ’long-view’. The better we build our understanding of the ecological significance of habitats and their species interactions, the better the management decisions we make.
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Shoni’s Pond
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Bronwydd Woods
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Waterfalls walk at Blaencwm Blaenrhondda