I have led walks for Dolau Dyfi for the past few years. Mostly we do path maintenance walks, clearing bramble, scrub and overhanging branches from public footpaths and bridleways. There have also been some walks with guest speakers who have talked about the land, the people and the history of the places we go, and a couple of map skills sessions to encourage people to go out and find their rights of way using the map.
I have very much enjoyed the groups that come on these walks and between us we have opened up miles of previously overgrown public rights of way. One of our most satisfying experiences was spending a couple of hard hours cutting through vegetation to open up a previously invisible and impassable public footpath; while we sat down for lunch at the end, a group walked by having found the route easily and had no trouble walking it.
I am passionate about keeping our historic rights of way open and encouraging people to use them. I also care deeply about achieving good relations between the farming community and people who use the rights of way recreationally. Working for Dolau Dyfi has been great in this respect because the organisation has been able to offer to help farmers fulfil their requirement to keep rights of way open and our it is good for our group to know that the work we do work is welcomed by all.
Volunteer activities
Between April 2021 and February 2023 – 33 volunteer activity days were completed with an average of 3 people per activity.
Due to Covid the Volunteer activities did not start until Spring 2021. Once they started attendance numbers varied between 1 and 8. A core group of committed volunteers attended regularly.
The work of the volunteers has been inspirational and included:
clearing densely overgrown footpaths,
dry stone walling,
clearing bracken and scrub,
laying hedges
and building and installing a river gate.
Some of the activity took place on farms or access routes that the project was working on; other work took place on new sites such as a cemetery or on local farms where opportunities were available to learn new skills.
We hope that the opportunities provided by the project helped the volunteers to develop skills as well as enjoy and benefit from the informal, friendly activities.
Profile
Rhodri Wigley – Dolau Dyfi Volunteer Manager
I have been managing the volunteer programme since January, and in the last two years, we have rebuilt many metres of dry stone walling, layed hedges, opened many an overgrown footpath, built floodgates, and cleared trees in a cemetery to benefit lower plants and flowers.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the volunteers and getting to know new people as well as trying to pass on my knowledge of the various rural skills to them.
The feedback from the volunteers has been really positive, with many stating that the work was beneficial to their mental as well as their physical wellbeing.
Landowners were always very grateful of the work achieved on their land.
After nearly 20 years of providing advice to promote, establish and enhance grazing management for wildlife, PONT has taken the difficult decision to close down at the end of March 2024.
This decision has not been made lightly but is the inevitable result of the current economic situation and the lack of long-term grant funding to support conservation grazing. Over the last 2 decades we have worked with hundreds of land owners, graziers and conservationists to find solutions to grazing issues which benefit wildlife, farmers and the community.
We have developed and delivered training for individuals and organisations, led and contributed to grant-funded initiatives and worked on innovative projects such as “Payments for Outcomes” schemes.
We would like to thank all those who have worked with us over the years.
