Welcome to the latest edition of the Sands of LIFE newsletter as we look back on the past few months before embarking on a busy autumn and early winter season.

With the bird breeding season over, crucial conservation work to help keep our sand dunes healthy is now back underway at various sites across Wales. From mowing to scrub removal and turf stripping to conifer felling, we are working hard to ensure sand dune habitat and the wildlife that depends upon it is given the best possible pre-Christmas boost.

A lot of vital work is underway at Merthyr Mawr. We are creating a notch in the front of the dunes and scraping to restore an historic dune slack (damaged by past gravel extraction) and surrounding dunes - a total area of two hectares. There will also be a further 16 small areas where turf will be stripped away – recreating vital bare sand habitat.

At Kenfig, in September Sands of LIFE completed the scraping of 0.5 hectares of dune slack to restore water-levels and recreate bare sand habitat, that is being lost from Wales’ sand dunes at an alarming rate. We also mowed 13 hectares of the dune grassland to help boost the site’s fen orchid population. Further work will continue with the clearance of scrub that is smothering the dune grassland and threatening specialised dune plants.

Over at Newborough we have been removing scrub at Pant Mawr – the site’s largest open glade – as well as Ffrydiau, Pant y Fuches and Cerrig Duon. Contractors removed a mix of invasive alien species such as cotoneaster and native species such as birch and willow. Scrub can quickly take over the dune grassland and lead to the disappearance of the orchid-rich slacks, freshwater pools and rare lichen ridges.

Work has been completed to restore the area around Ffrydiau Pools (see image). This has rejuvenated the existing over-grown pools, exposed bare sand and created a new pond – all of which helps the site’s European Protected shore dock and great crested newts.

Sands of LIFE Project Manager, Kathryn Hewitt, provides further information on the works at Newborough.

Keep an eye on our social media feeds for further work updates.

The Sands of LIFE project’s important winter work at Whiteford Burrows includes thinning within some of the conifer plantation stands (approx. 4 hectares) and clear felling of blocks of conifers (approx. 3.5 hectares).

Here Laura Bowen, Sands of LIFE Project and Monitoring Officer South, talks us through why the work is so important as the project goes about revitalising sand dunes across Wales.

Sands of LIFE is also working with colleagues from Natural Resources Wales’ forestry team to remove a block of conifers located on dunes at the edge of Harlech Forest in the New Year.

Take part in our survey about the socio-economic impacts of sand dunes and dune restoration and tell us how important these special landscapes are to you.

It’s quick to complete and we would really value your contribution.

Follow this link to take part in the survey. It’s quick to complete and we would really value your contribution.

We really enjoyed our talk slot at the recent Between the Trees Festival at Merthyr Mawr. We would like to offer a huge thank you to the organisers for allowing us the opportunity to explain why our work to help sand dunes across Wales is so important. We hope to be invited back at some point in the future.

As part of our project mid-term workshop we will be holding a two-hour informal virtual meeting on Thursday 21 October 2021. This will offer sand dune managers across Wales, UK & wider Europe a chance to network informally and update one another on success and challenges.

If you would like to attend, please email SoLIFE@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk.

A big thank you to ITV Wales Coast and Country for coming over to Morfa Harlech to film about how we are working in partnership with Royal St David’s Golf Club to help keep the sand dunes healthy.

The presenter Rob Shelley had an in-depth chat about our project before then also interviewing Trefor Davies, Golf Club Manager.

Keep an eye on our social media feeds for updates on when the item will be aired.