After a teacher consultation day the Heather and Hillforts Project held in January, Donna MacLennan from Howell’s School in Denbigh got in touch with us. Some students from her sixth form class are studying moorland habitats this year and she was keen for them to visit their local heathland.

After meeting the class at Loggerheads Country Park, we went to meet Nick, our Moorland Field Officer, for a presentation on the heather moorland and then after lunch we headed out for a walk in Moel Famau Country Park.

It was really nice to go into detail about the diversity of the moorland, speaking about the biodiversity, history and afforestation as well as conservation, agricultural and erosion issues too.

We had a slight diversion off the path to see some heather bales we use to restore bits of heather that have eroded away. The bales are collected during cutting and hold thousands of heather seeds. When they are laid out as brash, hopefully the seeds will plant and help reinstate the plant. Usually, felled trees are placed on top to protect it from the wind, and from feet!

The views were spectacular, although it was a little breezy on the hillside that day. The sheep didn’t seem to mind though! We saw the sheep on a burnt patch, as if on cue, just as Nick was explaining that they prefer to graze on burnt areas where there will be fresh new shoots of heather and bilberry. Sheep will also eat shrubs and trees which may encroach the heather, so they are actually some of our best moorland managers!

We turned off the Offa’s Dyke Path just before the summit and headed towards Coed Moel Famau, to the House for a Grouse area. This was created in an area of clear fell, where moorland has been re-introduced interspersed with trees, which is a perfect habitat for the black grouse!

More trees are being felled at the moment to make more of a habitat like this. Although we have a lot of moorland here in the Clwydian Range AONB and on Llantysilio Mountains, it is actually very rare. Around half of the world’s remaining heather moorland is located in the UK and about 40% of this has been lost since WWII. After the war, as well as a high demand for pastoral areas, there was for timber too so lots of conifer plantations were created. The Forestry Commission is now felling some trees at the edges of Coed Moel Famau to create a softer edge to the forest. This will mean that the edge of trees gradually changes to a landscape of trees mixed with moorland and then to simply moorland.

After a quick stop at the ‘black grouse’ in the forest we found ourselves at Coed Moel Famau car park and discussed the day and our findings on our walk on the quiet path off the road back to Bwlch Pen Barras.

A great day- thanks girls!