Otters on the Afon Lliw, near Felindre, have a new home – or ‘holt’ – thanks to an initiative by National Grid, with support from the Celtic Rivers Trust Partnership Project and Glyntaf.
National Grid and its contractors Nacap Land and Marine JV are coming to the end of their project to construct 210km of the 316km natural gas pipeline running between Milford Haven and Tirley in Gloucestershire.
As part of the project, extensive ecological surveys were undertaken of all the rivers adjacent to, or affected by, the pipeline, including monitoring of the otters.
Project Ecologist, Jason Appleby, said: “National Grid is committed to safeguarding and enhancing the environment in which it works, and thanks to the help and support of local landowner, Louise Alabaster, and volunteers from the Celtic Rivers Trust Partnership Project and Glyntaf, we have been able to extensively clear the river bank of invasive weeds to build the new holt.
“It took us a day of really hard work, but it was great fun. There are only limited areas along the river suitable for natural holts and so we really hope that our artificial one will be used by a breeding pair of otters. The availability of good breeding sites can limit the population size in small streams like this and so by building an artificial holt we will be helping to preserve and increase otter numbers on the Afon Lliw, which is a tributary of the Loughor river.”
Philip Lanc, of the Celtic Rivers Trust Partnership Project, said: “This has been a great project to help encourage and train individuals to get involved in river and habitat improvement. We hope that this is just the start and we will return annually to inspect the holt and carry out any remedial work like providing additional brushwood as required.”
Volunteers from Glyntaf helped with the clearance and construction. The group of young adults, with learning difficulties, all have similar interests and live and work together in a community north of Whitland.
Glyntaf’s Richard Powell said: “The team have benefited enormously from the safety and environmental training they have had, and from working with the landowner and ecologists. We’re really keen to undertake community work like this, especially when it involves practical and physically-based opportunities.”
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Further information from Caroline Davidson, Project Communications, Tel: 07785 254696