Those of you with very good memories - and an interest in bracken? - may remember that I posted (Bracken/undergrowth problem? Take this with you) a picture of a bracken cutting machine that I encountered on Bryn Arw GW/SW-026 (a small outlier of the Sugar Loaf) in July this year.
Since then we had heard that the bracken cutting had continued and that a message had been cut in both Welsh and English to promote the tree planting scheme that will soon be starting. This message can be seen from the A465 Hereford to Abergavenny road but an even better view is obtained from the very popular GW/SW-016 Ysgyryd Fawr on the other side of the road. Since the National Trust enlarged the car park (with parking meter) it is even more popular and recently we had to visit midweek on a very cold day to allow for social distancing.Owing to the strong cold wind we avoided the popular route straight up the ridge (and straight into the wind) but turned right on going through the wall and followed the public footpath on the the eastern side with lovely views. This meant that it was not until we finally climbed up
Looking drectly across to the side of Bryn Arw the message became readable if not totally clear as it is dficult to read the â.orgâ after âTREESâ.
A better picture, along with details of the planting scheme, can be found at https://stumpupfortrees.org. Keith Powell, the driver of the machine pictured above, is the instigator of the scheme to plant c100,000 trees on the 64 hectares of common land on the side of Bryn Arw. This has been funded by the Welsh Government and the scheme will be developed in partnership with the Woodland Trust. The website states : âGround preparations began in mid-July. The plant will take place over the planting season, November 2020 â March 2021.â Unfortunately, a lockdown in Wales has been announced to commence on Friday 23 October at 6pm and to last until 9 November so, if you wish to read this message it may be necessary to drive past (or even better, activate GW/SW-016) by Friday or wait another 2+weeks and hope they havenât started the plant (assuming they have some trees already on siteâŚ) and thus destroyed the message.
The charity Stump Up For Trees is aiming to plant a million trees in the Brecon Beacons and would, of course. welcome any donations you might care to give. I did check that the planting would stop sufficiently far down the hill to ensure that the trees would not interfere with my SOTA activations in the future so, bearing this in mind, Iâd better âStump Upâ sometime soon!
Viki