Yet More Greed and Wanton Habitat Destruction in Dyffryn Nantlle, Gwynedd, North Wales

- A Destructive Practice of Ignorance For Ever More Land, Sheep, and Payments...

2020:

• [ 21st April ]

  
  
• ignorance and greed knows no bounds: crop-spraying resumed again
  [ again, more than 2 months prior to the allowed date ]
  
  
• Yes, once again the local contractors are out, on a daily basis, spraying the surrounding fields with industrial-strength herbicide showing their usual contempt for GAEC and Cross-Compliance, not to mention total disregard for anyone with COVID-19 symptoms¹. Last week it was two 1992 model orange and white New Holland tractors² with rear-mounted spray units for spraying the more hilly, semi-improved locations (read: areas that they probably should not be spraying) and this week it is both them and the boom-mounted sprayer with slightly later model, flat-front, blue New Holland tractor.
  
  ...so if you live in the areas of Tanyrallt, Talysarn, Nebo, or Nasreth (or anywhere else not yet sprayed by these clowns), and do not appreciate having your COVID resistance trashed (or that of your children or elderly relatives), or if you actually believe that receiving CAP and SFP for completely disregarding Cross-Compliance is wrong, now is the time to prepare your camera, because they will certainly be spraying somewhere around your area soon (if not already)².
  
  

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  [ ¹ ] the links shown below give a good outline on the problems caused by the herbicide being sprayed on the fields. Further interesting (and unpleasant) information can be found by searching for "herbicide respiratory illness".
  
  https://www.ecowatch.com/15-health-problems-linked-to-monsantos-roundup-1882002128.html
  https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/02/20/pesticides-croplife-hazardous-bayer-syngenta-health-bees/
  
  [ ² ] due to the age of these vehicles the colouration is now more a case of tan and white, as opposed to orange and white.
  
  [ ³ ] the joker driving the blue tractor with red boom-sprayer is usually up and on the road, en-route to wherever they are spraying, anytime after 05:30 in the morning, usually driving along the B4418 ([ 12.05.20 ] 07:15, this morning, preceeded by one of the 1992 tractors at 06:15) from the direction of Nantlle and through Penygroes, but sometimes travelling along Lôn Ddŵr towards Llanllyfni, with Hen Lôn, via Talysarn, as an alternative option.
  
  Note: it is likely that you will face attempts at intimidation or interference from several sources in the area, most notably from any of the farms situated off Lon Ddŵr or Tal Garnedd and, quite possibly, from any one of several characters driving city vans in the area. It is also highly probable that any attempt to use a mobile handset will be illegally blocked or intercepted; however, there is a Police presence in the area, so please ensure that you report any such attempts, whatever form they take.
  
  

• [ 6th April ]

  
  
• possible crop-dusting on Pant Du Vineyard and Orchard
  
  
• Ordinarily this would not be much of a concern, outside of the vineyard promoting itself as being environmentally-conscious whilst continuing to eschew a fully organic approach with zero use of synthetic sprays or dusting compounds¹; however, year-on-year, there have been serious insect diebacks very early on in the year^{1 2} in the area surrounding Pant Du following some kind of spraying or dusting activities in their fields and whilst there is nothing, to date, to prove that these are a result of such activity, and whilst I have seen no die-back this year, I remain concerned, and especially so when someone who I understood (whether correctly or not) to be a member of their family has previously confirmed the recent absence of a particular bat species³ in the immediate vicinity of the vineyard whilst seemingly being unaware that the bat species in question is insectivorous and could well have been starved-out of the local area by any crop-spraying or dusting activities, whether on the vineyard or not.
  
  Of further concern still are the activities on the Pant Du estate yesterday, when people on the estate grounds were openly observing people from a red 4x4 parked on a lower field just above the B4418, whilst another sweaty, almost bald, humourist (wearing a dark puffa jacket) was busily photographing people, including local families and their children, walking along Hen Lôn (the lane above the main holdings) from the lane itself, whilst hovering between a John Dere quad hidden in the field just below the lane and making a pretense of fitting tree-wrappings in a field above Hen Lôn.
  
  Further to the above, said humourist then tried to threaten me and give me some nonsense about there not being a lower right-of-way on the field accessed via a path leading-up from Ffordd Hyfrydle⁴ or access via the lower gate to or from Hen Lôn; and then, after following me along said lane towards Talysarn (all the while giving me more verbiage along a similar vein), claiming that they were the landowner, Richard Wyn Huws (in which case they would certainly have known that they were in the wrong); although it later transpired that they actually were the landowner.
  
  Interestingly, following-on from the above encounter, I was able to capture, from the public right of way, a video clip of a tractor engaged in some kind of activity amongst the vineyards, covering the entire area (with many people in the process of self-isolating and doubtless in their gardens) with a pall of acrid, chalky, dust which may have been lime sulfur⁵.
  
  Could this possibly have anything to do with the curious, and noticeable, coincidence that almost invariably, and immediately (or certainly within a few days), proceeding any new attempts at intimidation or other similar stupidity there will be some activity being pursued by someone in the area (usually one of the local landowners or farmers) that is either outright illegal or of a very questionable nature; examples of this being an unauthorised planning development on Hen Lôn that switched to fully open and operational on the 7^th April⁶ (ie: the following day), and immediately following the COVID-19 lockdown, or the illegal slate waste extraction at Tomen Lechi Taldrwst (access to the footpath to which, - off the B4418, - just happens to be overlooked by the site of where the red 4x4 was parked on the lower vineyard)?
  
  Further, it does have to be asked why, if Pant Du are all they claim to be, why is their owner being so unprofessional and so inconsiderate, nevermind running the risk of being prosecuted for attempting to harass people using rights of way across their land? Also whether they, the owner, are acting purely on personal grounds or something more, and why, too, more recently, have they started to involve their son and other family members in these activities?
  
  

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  [ ¹ ] To the best of my knowledge the vineyard is not Soil Association approved and carries no organic certifications on their products. Further, and again to the best of my knowledge, there is no legal requirement to spray or dust vines in the UK (although it may be a requirement in the case of some insect or microbial infections).
  
  

  [ ² ] I have personally collected many specimens of dead insects during the insect diebacks and can confirm that whatever is killing them is not a household insecticide: these specimens have included moths, bees, and flies (including those beneficial to gardens and wild habitats); in addition to live (but dying) specimens that have clearly been poisoned.
  
  

  [ ³ ] The lady stated that the bats were Bechstein Bats, which is definitely not good because they are very rare and not normally found outside of southern parts of England and Cymru.
  
  https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/bechsteins-bat
  
  [ ⁴ ] The public right-of-way that connects Ffordd Hyfrydle to Hen Lôn (Llanllyfni N^o. 6) can be seen on both the Gwynedd Public Rights of Way Definitive Map and any 1:25000 OS map, not to mention DEFRA's Magic map; however, there is a second right-of-way (Llanllyfni N^o. 21) that forks off from the first, with an access onto Hen Lôn further down the lane from the iron kissing-gate and roughly 50' up from Crug [Farm]; this also being the one that the owner of Pant Du seems to be so keen on preventing the use of.
  
  [ ⁵ ] Approved for organic use and highly unlikely to be responsible for the insect die-backs in the area, therefore removing any question of culpability on spraying or dusting from Pant Du if being used on its own, and not in conjunction with anything else.
  
  https://homeguides.sfgate.com/spraying-lime-sulfur-grapevines-27819.html
  
  [ ⁶ ] Confirmed by a local on a mini-tipper who tried to head me off when heading up and onto Hen Lôn to the top of Talysarn later on in the afternoon of the 7^th, effectively confirming beyond a doubt that the work at the construction site was an unauthorised planning development.

2019:

• [ 19th May ]

  
  
• local quarry site found to be being used as a tip by Gwynfaes Farm, with evidence of household, construction, and farming equipment being dumped there:
  
  
• Quarry Tips
  
  

• [ 22nd May ]

  
  
• overspraying of the entire field area on the Lôn Ddwr side with strong herbicide extending from Gwnfaes Farm right the way across to within a field distance of Bro Silyn.
• included two semi-improved or EIA areas (one definitely unimproved)
• destruction of skylark habitat
• destruction of dragonfly habitat
• destruction of butterfly habitat, including red listed species
• destruction of protected plant species, including native bluebells
• cutting back of trees, at least 4 months before allowed date (with RPW derogation, or 5 months without).
• further destruction of wetland habitat
• removal of drainage ditches, resulting in both contamination and disruption of river tributaries
• overspraying with agri-chemicals, including strong herbicide, directly into river tributaries
• sprayed with strong herbicide, again 40 days prior to the allowed date for spraying
• damage to fallow areas
• work undertaken on behalf of, and by, Gwynfaes Farm, Llanllyfni, LL54 6RR and involved an older style blue New Holland tractor with a red boom sprayer
  
  
• Herbicide Spraying

• [ 18th June ]

• further spraying using strong herbicide on unimproved land directly below Tanyrallt with an orange and white tractor, again using a boom-sprayer⁴
• destruction of skylark habitat
• destruction of butterfly habitat, including red listed species
• contamination of river tributaries
• sprayed with strong herbicide 2 weeks prior to the allowed date for spraying
• destruction of unimproved permanent grassland area
• the work is understood to have been undertaken by Gwernoer Farm, located en route to Nantlle from Talysarn and just off from the B4418.

• [ 24th June ]

• destruction of a small wooded copse on the other side of the floodplain, just below Tanyrallt, involving the cutting-down of trees (many mature) and grubbing-up of old hedgerows, including the use of mechanical diggers to remove the stumps, with both the diggers and a tractor being used to grade and compact the land to try and hide the evidence.
• destruction of nesting bird habitat
• destruction of small mammal habitat
• destruction of saplings, scrub, and mature trees
• destruction of protected species of both fauna and flora, including bluebells and bat habitat
• destruction of butterfly habitat, including red listed species
• this work was also undertaken by Gwynfaes Farm, Llanllyfni, LL54 6RR

• [ 7th July ]

• I had an interesting conversation with one of the farmers cutting the grass on an area of semi-improved fenland by the leisure centre and just below the B4418, on the outskirts of Penygroes, today. After the usual guff about farming being hard work (it is, but, speaking as someone who has worked on a farm previously, it is no harder than many other manually-intensive jobs that involve being outside, and working outside, in all weathers throughout the year), it transpires that the two main reasons for cutting the sward at this time of year are heather and that it is dry.
  
  These arguments are both hollow: the council makes arrangements with the local farmers to full-cut the verges at the back-end of the year, with weather increasingly remaining consistently dry until October, so there is no reason why that field area could not be cut then. Their second argument is that of heather poisoning sheep, which is absolute total nonsense: sheep and heather get along just fine (and any heather growing on the areas that were being cut had long since been cleared from those areas, anyway).
  
  Disappointingly too, the person cutting the sward was driving a tractor belonging to the Pant Du Vineyard. Further to this I spoke to a lady several months later who I understood to be one of the family who own the vineyard and was disappointed, again, to hear her talking of bats which are no longer present at the site.
  
  Disappointed again because Pant Du Vineyard, whilst making a point of promoting the environmental side of their business, appears to spray or dust their orchards with something very early on in the year (early May this year), every year, following which there is usually an insect die-back (including early butterflies, moths, bees, and a good number of other important pollinators, - all essential bat food, - right about the time that the bats need it the most)¹; also, herbicide is applied to areas around the drive and footpath routes leaving an ugly mess of dead, brown, vegetation behind (although this could be the work of Gwynedd Council Council).
  
  At the beginning of this year the verge at the bottom of their drive was also chopped-up with an excavator leaving behind little but a tiny berm of earth that still looks a mess and took months to recover. Ironically, too, the vineyard also owns an apiary on land above the vineyards and close to a site which most definitely has previously been sprayed (and which is also adjacent to land that is supposed to be a butterfly reserve).
  
  

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  [ ¹ ] I should make it clear that at the moment there is no definite link between the die-backs and activities on the vineyard, beyond that one consistently follows the other; although that has not happened this year [ 2020 ].

2018:

• [ 21st May ]

  
  
• destruction of fenland area below the B4418, bordering Arfon Llyni
• destruction of otter habitat
• destruction of skylark habitat, including that of nesting birds with fledglings
• destruction of dragonfly habitat
• destruction of butterfly habitat, including red listed species
• destruction of embankment area, including the destruction of saplings
• destruction of wetland habitat and permanent grassland
• major contamination and disruption of river tributaries
• sprayed with strong herbicide 40 days prior to the allowed date for spraying, that being the 30th June
• river tributaries oversprayed
• destruction of fallow areas
• work undertaken by Gwynfaes Farm, Llanllyfni, LL54 6RR and Pen-Yr-Allt-Gôch, Llanllyfni, LL54 6SB

:: video 2 :: As It Was
:: slides 2 :: Apocalypse Now: Scorched Earth
:: video 3 :: Buffer Strip Destruction
:: slides 3 :: Cover-Up
:: slides 4 :: Sea of Mud

[ 5th July 2019: ] the area in question, whilst still lacking much of its original character, has now recovered quite well; also, to their credit, the farmers have been leaving this alone, mowing later on in the year, and leaving the border areas intact. The drainage channels have been re-colonised to a large extent, too, and for the time being, at least, even if doubtless unintentially after discovering the meaning of soakaway, this area is serving as a good example of how an area can be (or can revert to) semi-improved without loss of use to the farmer.

• [ 6th August ]

• major trimming and thinning of boundary hedgerows and copse areas¹
  
  

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  [ ¹ ] Cross-Compliance and Greening rules disallow the trimming and removal of brush, copse, and hedgerow between the 31st of March and the 31st August, but a derogation for situtations where the farmer is planting rape seed or temporary grass seed at the same time means that this work can be carried-out at any time in August (ie: up to a month earlier than would otherwise be allowed).

  
  
  

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• [ Notable Wildlife ]

  
  
• Reed Warblers [ Acrocephalus scirpaceus ], Sedge Warblers [ Acrocephalus schoenobaenus ], and Grasshopper Warblers [ Locustella Nævia ] can also be found among, and nesting, in the reeds along the bank of the river, along with Grey Heron [ Ardea cinerea ] (sadly nowhere near as many as would normally be expected in such a location), and Jays [ Garrulus glandarius ]; all of which would be fantastic were it not for the ongoing threat of further destruction and spraying with agri-chemicals.
  
  Sadly, and probably inevitably, the Skylarks do not appear to have recovered from the destruction of their habitat last year, and a good part of an adjacent area (still fenland) was heavily over-grazed earlier on in the year, in addition to being deliberately contaminated with a sizeable quantity of animal waste from Gwynfaes Farm under the cover of darkness and idiotically using tractors pulling trailer loads of waste along a main highway with no headlights in November of last year.

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Fenland or Permanent Grassland, - Which Is It?
Greening, GAEC, Cross-Compliance, and SFP

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During the period from August through to September, 2018, under the guise of ploughing and rolling, several tons of crushed aggregate were also buried in the ground in order to eradicate the wetland structure of the ground and to firm it up for sheep grazing. In the process several of the original drainage channels (which were likely put in place by Dŵr Cymru during the laying of a waste water pipe across the floodplain several decades ago) were, likewise, removed, infilled with crushed stone and earth, and compacted or so badly damaged that they no longer serve any purpose.⁵

This has not only completely destroyed a valuable wetland habitat, making it all but impossible to restore in the process, but has also turned a natural soakaway into a compacted mass of stone and clotted earth that will ultimately become absolutely worthless and serve no purpose beyond causing massive surface erosion and a great deal of debris run-off into the river (which is already silting-up and flooding partly as a direct consequence of this addled approach to land management).

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening application should also have been submitted on this land (and never was) and breaching the regulations is both illegal and a potentially prosecutable offence, with a requirement to reinstate the land to its previous condition and/or a Cross Compliance penalty on the farmer's Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) or Rural Development Scheme payments.

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