The Vision
Communities and wild nature thriving, together. Natur a cymunedau yn ffynnu.
Artwork by Katherine Jones Artist.
What Matters to Us
Keeping Water on the Land, Protecting Welsh Communities
Our vision is to see water held back on the land, where it should be, protecting our communities further downstream from devastating flood events, the severity and frequency of which are becoming greater every year as our climate changes. Restoring peatlands will hold water like a sponge and regenerating trees and shrubs will absorb it, making our landscapes both resilient and wildlife rich.
Furthermore, productive farmland further down the catchment will see reduced impact during times of high rainfall, protecting our soils and ensuring our food security. We will measure and monitor the impact of our work. Rhaid i ni adael natur ein hamddiffyn ni.
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Beavers could return to build their dams and slow the flow, holding water back in the catchment. Their homes will keep ours dry, as water is released slowly but also stored in times of drought. Often celebrated as ecosystem engineers, Beavers are also nature's plumbers. Gall afancod ein helpu i leihau llifogydd. Gadewch i ni weithio gyda'n gilydd i'w dychwelyd adref.
Image: A river trickles through a Celtic rainforest...
Creating Wilder Carbon Systems, Storing it Above and Below Ground
Our vision is to see a ​Wales that plays a leading role in tackling climate change, where landowners work together to implement nature-based solutions. Cymru yn arwain y ffordd ar y llwyfan byd eang. We have so much potential here in Wales to be doing so much more.
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Our work will see hundreds of acres of degraded peatland restored to its spongiest best, sequestering carbon in its sphagnum mosses whilst providing habitat for rare and endangered species. Furthermore, the recovery of trees and shrubs, dotted across the landscape will draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Best of all, our wild grazing will reanimate natural carbon cycles. Cattle and ponies will browse on trees, shrubs and lightly graze the sward before digesting and dunging carbon back into the soil, recycled by recovering dung beetles. A wilder carbon system for the benefit of planet, people and wildlife. Gweithio gyda natur i ddatrys newid hinsawdd.
A Restoration of Ecosystems, Where Nature Takes the Lead
Our vision is to​ see ecosystems fully restored so that nature can determine its own course. Wild grazing facilitates the natural regeneration of an entire landscape. At our site, ancient cattle, ponies and pigs will roam freely, acting as ecological proxies for their wild ancestors, the Auroch, Tarpan and Wild Boar respectively.
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"In Cymru, we have a long history of precisely the sort of mixed, lower impact grazing that could allow nature to recover" (Carwyn Graves, author of Tir: The Story of The Welsh Landscape)
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They will graze, they will browse, rummage, rootle, dung, wallow and churn. Their wild and wonderful ways will cause the disturbance in the landscape that nature needs to thrive. These large animals are a part of nature, and it is our vision for people to see them as a functional component of an ecosystem, adding nuance to the narrative around the impact of livestock on our planet.
Image: A Red Squirrel cheekily pops its head around a thicket of flowering heather. Credit: Scotland: The Big Picture
​We will work with partners and neighbouring landowners to actively encourage the return and reintroduction of species, where it is appropriate and feasible to do so. Beavers could return to turbocharge wetland creation and provide habitat and food for all manner of beasties. Pine Marten and Wildcats too, perhaps.
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Critically, what sets our approach apart is that individual species and habitats will not be managed here for particular outcomes, rather nature will guide us and find its own path. All species will benefit, from the Otter, or Dwr-Gi (water dog) who will feast on replenished fish stocks and the Osprey, Gwalch-Y-Pysgod (fish hawk), to the common Foxglove Menyg Ellyllon (elves' gloves) that thrive in disturbed, acidic soils. Nature at its fullest, loudest and most abundant will return. Mae'n bryd troi i fyny'r sŵn ar byd natur!
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Jays, Sgrech Y Coed (screamer of the woods) will plant the oaks of tomorrow, cradled and protected by thorny scrub. Our pigs will rummage around and till the earth, nature's gardener back where it belongs. The cattle and ponies will vector seeds throughout the landscape, creating variation both of species and of structure. An ecosystem restored in its totality and we can all breath a sigh of relief. Critically, this is a model of nature recovery that can be scaled up, whenever it is asked to do so. A model that confronts the scale of the crisis.
Image: An industrious beaver niggles away at a some felled branches. Credit: Dr Sam Rose
Communities, Collaboration and Culture
As a priority we will engage with our local neighbours ​​and communities to open communications and learn from each other. ​We want to convey that the work we will be carrying out resembles ancient, cultural systems of land management, with low density, mixed grazing at the heart of what we do. ​
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In the early years, there will be opportunity to work with local grazers to turn cattle out onto the hills for summer grazing, much as the hafota or transhumance systems of old, where livestock were moved up onto the hills for summer grazing. Until the 18th century, this was predominantly done with cattle, ancestors of our Welsh Black and Vaynol breeds. Pigs and ponies too were much more prevalent in these systems, where landscapes were wetter, scrubbier and woodier.
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In the long term, we envisage these cattle, alongside Carneddau or Welsh Mountain ponies roaming freely across the landscape, all year round. Iron Age pigs will capture the spirit of the Twrch Trwyth. Whereas the resulting habitat will be dynamic and shift over time, it will quickly resemble our rare and treasured Ffridd habitat, the scrubbier wood pasture that dots our hillsides, bronze with bracken in the autumn and winter months.
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Tir Natur's firm intention is to build strong and lasting relationships with those around us who have been custodians of the land over the years, and the generations. We want to hear their stories and tell them ours.
Image: A beautiful Carneddau pony amidst the heathlands of North Wales. Credit: Ruth Chamberlain (Ruth on the Hoof).
Food and Rural Economy
Our vision is to see healthy, nutritious, wild-range food serving local markets and meeting community demand. As our animals roam freely all year round, they will forage on a wide selection of nature's nutritious bounty. In years gone by, Welsh farms would have had a Cai'r Ysbyty (hospital field) to turn sickly animals onto. It would have been rich in wildflowers with various nutrients, but through rewilding the land, the entire landscape becomes a medicine cabinet and our cattle and pigs will get to eat what they want , when they want it. They will graze on natural anthelmintics such as Birds Foot Trefoil that reduce worm burden, and anti-inflammatories like salicin, found in the bark of willow.
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Aside from our wild grazing, every work that we carry out on the land will look to employ local contractors, from fencing and drainage removal to peatland restoration.
Image: Abundant wildflowers spread across a landscape.