This page was last updated on 12/12/07 © Snowdonia Society 2007 Registered Charity 253231

Snowdonia Society Conferences

NATIONAL PARK SOCIETIES CONFERENCE Inspring Communities - National Parks in the 21st Century 2-4th November 2007, Plas y Brenin, Capel Curig The Snowdonia Society played host to over seventy participants from across England and Wales for this year's National Park Societies Conference held at Plas y Brenin. Sponsored by RWEnpower with support from Scottish Power and the Countryside Council for Wales, it was a fitting conclusion to our 40th anniversary celebrations. Sixty years have passed since the publication of the Hobhouse Committee Report, which called for the creation of the first UK National Parks. In discussing the main theme of the conference, delegates were also exploring relevant roles for National Park Societies. Plenary sessions covered the interlinked themes of Inspiring Communities and the role of National Parks in the 21st century, complimented by small group workshops and seminars throughout the weekend. Field trips allowed delegates to experience the riches of Snowdonia and further examine the theme including the community-led mountain bike trail development at Penmachno and the impact of rebuilding the Welsh Highland Railway on Beddgelert. The Rt. Hon. Dafydd Wrigley joined us for the Conference Dinner. He shared his experiences as an MP and AM balancing the legitimate, but often conflicting, interests of different communities, such as the indigenous population and tourists. He encouraged the Societies to continue lobbying politicians to safeguard our National Parks. At the end of the weekend delegates returned to their respective areas inspired, provoked and stimulated to take their message of the value of National Parks in the 21st century to a range of different communities. Full conference report Sponsored by RWEnpower with support from the Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Power Recreation & Access - Challenge and opportunity in the National Park 10 -11 June 2006, Plas y Brenin, Capel Curig The Recreation and Access Conference was held on 10th June 2006 at Plas y Brenin with the support of the Countryside Council for Wales. With an excellent array of speakers, it attracted nearly 70. Alan Pugh, Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) Minister for Sport and culture, in a keynote address spoke of the importance of encouraging greater levels of participation in active sports to improve the nation's health. He believed that there was a great potential for growth in e.g. mountain biking and the use of the mountain environment. Jim Embrey, Activity Tourism Development Manager, Visit Wales, explained how, with the incorporation of the Welsh Tourist Board into WAG, there was now more emphasis on working with local communities and described a number of the new and successful initiatives. Beverley Penney spoke of the Ramblers' Association's delight with the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. Just over 20% of Wales was now legally accessible. Access land is not throwing up the problems some predicted but she stressed the need to improve access information and map-reading skills. Other contributions included the development of the outdoor sector, access for people with disabilities, mountain biking and the problems of off-roading. The final session was a lively and wide-ranging discussion with John Ablitt, SNPA's Head of Recreation. The next day Dave Smith of the National Trust led participants, including Alan Edwards on his powerchair, on the all-ability path along the river at Beddgelert. The Landscape of Snowdonia National Park - Past, Present and Future 16-17th April 2005, Bangor On April 16 the Society held a lively and informative conference at Bangor to discuss the landscape of Snowdonia. This attracted some 70 participants from a range of backgrounds. The first speaker, Professor Paul Selman of Sheffield University, unpacked the concept of 'landscape', as 'the place where everything comes together'. He suggested that, in order to be sustainable, a landscape must combine ecological integrity with clear cultural meanings. Those meanings are likely to be different for insiders and outsiders, and they need to be sensitised to each other. Even in a National Park there ought to be a continuum of management objectives, from strong protection to regeneration and the creation of new patterns in response to driving forces. Will the future landscape retain its character and distinctiveness, with many meanings, many functions and many voices? Or will it have degraded functions and few meanings, with corporate voices dominant? Warren Martin, now Vice Chair of the National Park Authority, pointed to the long pastoral tradition in Snowdonia, probably the oldest culture in Europe and still very alive. He drew on his deep understanding of local agricultural practices to show why changes have occurred in the landscape (see his article elsewhere in this issue). Farmers are now faced with making their living under a modified Common Agricultural Policy; he doubted whether anyone could say what effect this will ultimately have. Dr David Gwyn emphasised the enormous impact industry has had on the landscape, economy and culture of Snowdonia. Moreover, in the nineteenth century industries in, broadly speaking, the area of the National Park drove developments in surrounding areas. The relationship with surrounding areas has now been reversed, for the Welsh language as much as for industrial development. In the afternoon Jill Bullen explained the LANDMAP system for analysing and assessing landscape, developed by the Countryside Council for Wales in partnership with local planning authorities. Peter Ogden regretted that LANDMAP is not being effectively utilised, and that the Welsh Assembly Government has not made resources available for full implementation. That is another example of its refusal to recognise the importance of landscape, as evidenced by key policy documents such as the Wales Spatial Plan and the initial draft of the Environment Strategy. The final speaker, Professor Adrian Phillips, explained the provisions of the European Landscape Convention. This does not introduce any new powers or designations, but it raises the profile of landscape issues and promotes an integrated approach to protection and management. Unfortunately the UK has yet to sign and ratify this convention. He enlisted the Society's support in ongoing lobbying to change that situation. The Society saw this event as a contribution to preparation of the National Park Management Plan. The chair of the conference, Professor John Farrar, identified some key decisions that have to be made for Snowdonia: the scale and nature of tourism; the scale and nature of farming; the scope for renewable energy sources; and the relative importance of landscape, ecosystems, species and the economy. He questioned whether it makes sense any longer to think of the whole National Park in terms of multiple use. Has the time come to set particular goals for each catchment within the Park? On the Sunday morning Society members made another intrepid field trip, this time with snow lying, high winds and heavy rain, to study landscape change and management in practice at Cwm Idwal and Nant Ffrancon. Sustainable Energy - the challenge for Snowdonia October 2004, Dolgellau The original motive for the conference was to launch the Society's energy policy. Peter Southgate presented and explained that in the first session. This also became an opportunity to tell people about the Society's response to the Assembly Government's draft Technical Advice Note on renewable energy (TAN 8). John Farrar painted a sombre picture of the likely impact of climate change on Snowdonia. Geoffrey Sinclair, a consultant to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, described the scale of development planned for onshore wind power and the impact that could have on the Welsh landscape. The other three sessions covered ways of using energy more efficiently. Martyn Berry expounded the attractions of fuel cells as a non-polluting form of energy in rural areas, and brought along apparatus to demonstrate his points, including a fuel cell-powered (toy) car. Frances Voelcker exposed the failure of current planning guidance for the National Park to reflect the imperative of conserving energy used in buildings. She argued for a completely new approach to design of houses. Instead of being hung up on poor sub-Georgian, this would take maximum advantage of solar energy and achieve very high levels of insulation through use of renewable local materials (timber and wool). Colin Speakman showed the contribution that could be made by more sustainable modes of travel in National Parks. On Friday a large and intrepid party inspected a small hydroelectric plant, a community wind turbine and solar power installations; visited the Centre for Alternative Technology; and managed to get back across the Dyfi bridge at Machynlleth shortly before it was closed by floods. On Saturday night a conference dinner was held at the George III, Penmaenpool. This was the largest and liveliest conference we have held. The 90 participants included a number from outside the Society. It merited a three page report in the Daily Post. We are most grateful to the expert team of speakers (predominantly Society members), and to the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) for its continuing financial support to our conferences. See the report of the Conference from the Daily Post here and here. People in the Park March 2003, Llanberis Although a member for several years, I had not previously attended a meeting of the Snowdonia Society. I was very favourably impressed by the Spring Conference After Dr Morag McGrath, the Chair, had set the tone with her introduction, in which she referred to the wide range of sometimes conflicting interests involved in the Snowdonia National Park, Graham Day, who lectures in sociology at Bangor University, gave us a clear and interesting description of the ways in which all these interests could be properly taken into account. He stressed that community development was a matter which took time, since the local people's views had to be sought before a project even reached the drawing board - in stark contrast to the frequent practice of seeming to "consult" people when all the major decisions had already been taken by the various elected representatives and agencies involved. After Elwyn Owen's lively presentation on sustainable tourism, Shan Ashton brought home to us just how conflicting the various interests in the Park can be.Hywyn Williams, who is the Snowdonia National Park Authority's Community Liaison Officer, described his work of liaising with local communities. He too referred to the contrasts within the Park; it has coastline as well as mountains and includes communities, which differ as sharply as, for example, the village of Trawsfynydd and the town of Dolgellau. He deals with a whole range of authorities and organisations, and communities requiring funds for projects contact him so that he can explore all the possible sources of funds via his comprehensive funding database. Professor Harold Carter, Emeritus Professor of Geography, Aberystwyth, then provided an interesting insight into population movements in Wales, illustrating by means of census data how there had been a decline in Wales's population over most of the last century, but a sudden increase in the last quarter, mostly due to in-migration. Like the previous talks, Professor Carter's provoked questions and lively discussion. At the close of the proceedings all those who organised and addressed the Conference were thanked for making it such a success. The non-Welsh speaking members of the audience expressed their warm appreciation of Bryn Jones's interpretation into English of the talks of Shan Ashton and Hywyn Williams and of contributions from the audience. On the following day the torrential rain had fortunately abated, as Hywyn Williams took us on a fascinating walk through Beddgelert Forest. We followed the bedding of the planned Welsh Highland Railway, which, whether we like it or not, is to become a feature of the Park. Mr Williams showed us how efforts are being made to integrate it into the environment; up to 30,000 visitors a year are expected, and paths for walkers are to be laid alongside bridle paths and tracks for mountain bikers coming in on the train. Mountain biking as a family activity is to be a major attraction and the aim is to use the railway where possible to prevent the village of Beddgelert from being clogged up with cars. There is to be a track leading from what will be Beddgelert station to the village so that business there can benefit from the visitors.We also saw just how much impact the project will have on one particular farmer and his family - imagine suddenly having two trains an hour clonking across your yard! We are grateful to the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) for its continuing financial support to our conferences. Trees in the Park October 2002, Blaenau Ffestiniog On Saturday morning two visits got us off to a healthy and educational start. Kim Burnham of Forest Enterprise used the Gwydyr Forest to demonstrate holistic forest management and Rory Francis of Coed Cadw conducted a group around Coed Felinrhyd. This was a noteworthy start to the "Trees in the Park" Conference which continued on Sunday. The "Trees in the Park" conference gave an encouraging picture of forestry in the Park and emphasised the development of a more integrated view of the role of forests in the landscape. Chris Smith the Forestry and Woodlands officer for the Park Authority gave us an excellent introduction to the woodland policies of the National Park. John Good a forest ecologist discussed the ways in which forestry and farming can be integrated in a sound profitable system (cf. his article on page ***), a theme, which was taken up, and extended by David Jenkins of Coed Cymru describing efforts to develop profitable markets for hardwoods which are often considered unprofitable in the size classes available in Wales. Simon Graham of Tilhill Forestry brought us back to the reality of commercial forestry, demonstrating ways in which individuals could acquire and manage woodlands. The final speaker Greg Vickers of the Forestry Commission re-emphasised the national picture with an encyclopaedic description of the Welsh Assembly's "Woodlands for Wales" strategy. We are grateful to the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) for its continuing financial support to our conferences. Forestry in theSnowdonia National Park - the Snowdonia Society's view We appreciate the attention paid in new plans to how plantations fit into the landscape with efforts to ameliorate straight boundaries and to remove trees from prominent skylines. It is encouraging to see proposals to increase the number of hardwoods and to expand the area of open land, particularly along watercourses. Many of our comments on the plans have been specific to particular plantations but a number of more general recommendations emerge: · - the planting of a greater variety of species where possible; · - a greater mix of species rather than trees planted in blocks with straight and conspicuous internal boundaries; · - more attention to be paid to blending plantation boundaries into the surrounding countryside; and · - maximising the potential for public access and recreation.