Farm Mapping

International Wildlife Consultants is based on a farm of 278 acres in west Wales. Over the past 23 years we have made many changes, planting woodlands, digging ponds and providing wildlife areas. Now about 22% of the land is out of agriculture and the whole farm is in the Tir Gofal management scheme.

In order to make the farm a better resource, both for wildlife and for education, we started our first surveys in 2004. Oliver Cartrett-Webb from the University of Swansea and Jenny Norris from the University of Aberystwyth spent the late spring and summer making the initial surveys. These are as yet far from complete, so we are interested in making the farm available for other student projects to continue the work. The Butterfly Study Group have also been surveying the farm because we manage it for Brown Hairstreak Butterflies. This entails maintaining blackthorn thickets in the 2-5 year cohort for them to lay their eggs. In 2005 the farm will also be available for a course in pond construction and management and for local student projects.

The first step in surveying is to map the farm, and we have mapped the same habitats as described in the Tir Gofal Plan: