We’re seeking your views on the design for the new commemorative woodland at Brownhill, in the Tywi valley, Carmarthenshire.

The site at Brownhill has been confirmed as one of three planned locations for memorial woodlands in Wales, which were announced earlier last month by the First Minister Mark Drakeford. The ambition is for the woodlands to be seen as a symbol of Wales’ resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic and one of regeneration and renewal as they grow.

What are we consulting on?

We want to engage with local communities and our partners to plan and design the woodland, shaping them into safe and accessible spaces, where people of all ages can come to remember and reflect for years to come.

The consultation will also ensure any potential impacts on the surrounding area are considered and offer the opportunity for people to put forwards ideas on how they can be involved with the planning process.  

Woodland Creation

Woodlands deliver a wide range of benefits – from helping us tackle climate change by locking up carbon, to providing valuable habitats for plants and wildlife, providing outdoor recreational spaces for people to enjoy, slowing flood water and helping reduce water pollution, generating employment and supporting rural livelihoods through their aftercare and active management.

The creation of this woodland is part of our wider Woodland Creation Programme, which has been established to help increase the rate of new woodland creation and tree planting in Wales, to support efforts to tackle the climate and nature emergency.

As with all woodland on the Welsh Government Woodland Estate it will provide a public resource with open access and be managed to meet the UK Forestry Standard and UK Woodland Assurance Standard.

The site

The site is situated close to the A40 in Carmarthenshire between the villages of Manordelio and Llanwrda, post code is SA19 8HE, the nearest train station is Llangadog 1.5 miles away.

Figure One shows the location.

The site is 94ha and is predominantly flat floodplain land.

The North of the site has been used for silage/hay and grazing, while the remainder tends to be wetter ground used for grazing and includes permanent pasture, some of which is rushy. The fields are divided by hedgerows, some of which are mature and planted more recently, with mature and veteran hedgerow and in-field trees (mainly Oak). 

The site has a rich mosaic of habitat types including shingle banks, marshy grassland, neutral grassland, wet woodland, mature hedgerows, veteran trees, different sizes of watercourses and standing water. The semi-natural habitats present are rare for this area of the Tywi valley and if managed sympathetically, has great potential to support a rich biodiversity and provide a significant contribution to the resilience of ecosystems in the local area.

There are features of an active floodplain such as oxbow lakes and river channels which support Alder Carr and standing water. The site straddles the Tywi (Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation designated). To the East of the main river and larger channels access is poor, the land has been left fallow and is natural regenerating riparian woodland.

To note, the land was sold as five lots of which we secured three. The remining two consisted of a higher proportion of more productive agricultural land. The three we secured all included a proportion of rougher and/or less accessible ground, less attractive for agricultural purposes.

The land is sheltered with medium to rich soil nutrients and moist to fresh soil moisture. Climate change projections show the site is likely to become warmer and drier in the future.

Figure Two shows a map of the site along with some photographs of some of the prominent features.

Figure three shows the current map of the site compared to historic maps, indicating how the field boundaries and course of the river have changed over time.

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Woodland plan

Our intention is to create a diverse and resilient new woodland that will be there for the people of Wales to enjoy in perpetuity.

The commemorative woodlands will be a symbol of Wales’ resilience during the pandemic, and one of regeneration and renewal as the new woodlands grow. They will be places of commemoration where families and friends can remember lost loved ones and where the public will be able to reflect on the pandemic and the huge impact it has had on all our lives.

Figure four describes the site and based on the existing features, sets out the plan for woodland creation in each of the distinctly different areas of the site.

Figure five illustrates what the site could look like as the woodland begins to develop.

Ground preparation: Areas of longer grass to be mowed. Ground to be prepared by hand screefing to create a weed free planting position. 

Tree protection: Due to the existing sward of grass it is likely saplings be vulnerable to ring barking by small mammals such as voles. However, site investigation indicates grazing pressure from deer and rabbits is low. We will therefore use spirals to protect from small mammals. Where possible, trees will be protected from vegetation competition by hand screefing when planting, and motor-manual weeding until they are established.