Community group launches final fundraising push to buy ancient woodland

Nation.Cymru staff

This Nature Week, a community organisation is seeking to raise the remaining funds needed for the collective purchase of eight acres of ancient woodland in just one week.

The Tir Pontypridd organisation are fighting to protect the woodland on the outskirts of Treforest Pontypridd.

Speaking about the project, Financial Director Angela Karadog said: “The deadline to submit the informal tenders is 12noon on Tues 14th July, so this last week of fundraising will be crucial

“We’ve raised almost half of the £40,000 fundraising target, with some of our own savings raised via membership subscriptions, several significant donations pledged by local residents, and our Crowdfunder campaign.”

Inheritance for future generations

At a community meeting in Treforest Community Centre last week, members of Tir Pontypridd met with members of the local community to discuss the community purchase of the ancient woodland, known to many residents as ‘Barry Mountain’.

Older residents recalled playing in their local woods as children and explained how the old Barry Line railway use to run past many people’s houses, the woods behind becoming known for the railway built to transport coal from mines in the Rhondda to Barry Docks.

The coalmines have closed and the railway line went with Dr Beechings closures. But the woodland endures, surviving the demand for timber supplies during World War II, which saw part of the woods nearby felled, and another used as shooting range.

And surviving the industrial toxic legacy, that has blighted some of the other areas nearby. Such as Maendy Quarry, where Monsanto dumped PCB’s in the 1950’s, which has passed this smaller area of woodland, known to history as Craig-Y-Fforest, mercifully unscathed.

Community members expressed their support for Tir Pontypridd’s intention to purchase the woodlands and expressed their desire to conserve the heritage and ecology of the woodlands as an inheritance for future generations.

Older residents are hopeful that children will play their once again, and the Boys and Girls Club of Wales, who relocated their officers to the nearby Treforest Boys and Girls Club recently, are keen to access the woodlands with young people.

Helping people to Reconnect with Nature

Ken Moon, Chair of Tir Pontypridd said: “We’re very lucky where we live.

“People think of the Valleys as a post-industrial landscape where poverty is endemic. But we also live in an area that is rapidly rewilding

“Nature is literally on our doorstep. But our access to nature is becoming more restricted. Every time land changes hands, the keep out signs are usually the first thing to go up. We aim to change that by putting the decision making into the hands of our communities.”

A Community Benefit Society, Tir Pontypridd Cymdeithas Cyfyngedig was set up by residents of Pontypridd fed up of seeing land being lost to the very local communities who care so deeply about the places where they live.

Moon added: “If we want people to care more about nature and biodiversity, we need to provide people with the opportunities to reconnect, and work with the land around where they live. Not watch Nature supports our wellbeing and we can support nature better, but only if we can become a part of nature once again.”

As a membership organisation Tir Pontypridd has been slowly raising funds to purchase land in and around their town, through membership subscriptions. The land Tir Pontypridd purchases will be for the benefit of their community’s wellbeing and nature.

“We don’t see community and nature as being mutually exclusive. We think it’s essential that if we’re to improve outcomes for nature and biodiversity then we also need to improve wellbeing outcomes for our local communities. Buying land is how we aim to do that”

The majority of those who have been supporting the campaign live locally and is an indication of how much people who live in the area care about their local landscape. A landscape which is changing once again as society transitions to Net Zero.

But unlike external investors Tir Pontypridd works with residents to secure and look after the land they purchase. Sharing knowledge, expertise, decision making, and resources to care for the landscape around them together, as a community asset.

One week to secure an ancient woodland

The deadline to submit the informal tenders is 12noon on Tues 14th July, so this last week of fundraising will be crucial is the community are to go ahead with their attempt to purchase these 8 acres of ancient woodland.

Karadog said: “We need to raise £40,000 by next Monday evening, otherwise we won’t be able to go ahead with the purchase.

“We’ve set the bar high to cover the initial purchase costs, agents’ fees, legal fees, and to install the fencing required by the seller.”

Additional funds will also be needed to help with on-going maintenance costs, to improve community access and to cover liabilities such as tree fall and fly-tipping.

If you’d like to support the campaign to purchase the woodlands then you can donate to the Crowdfunder appeal here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tir-pontypridd

If you’d like to get more involved in the work of Tir Pontypridd as a shareholding member, then you can join Tir Pontypridd here.