Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIG
174.
Field at Middleton sown with barley, millet and sunflowers as a food source for overwintering birds.
(Harold Grenfell)
There are also an increasing number of small-scale conservation initiatives in Gower. In 2003 the
Gower Society, for example, grant-aided the planting of a field in Middleton with a mix of barley, com-
monmillet
Panicum miliaceum
andsunflowers
Helianthus annuus
,inordertoattractyellowhammersand
various finches during the winter (Fig. 174). This appears to have been extremely successful.
THE SITUATION TODAY
There are no direct threats to Gower today comparable to those of the past. Large holiday camps are
unlikely to be built, and woods will not be clear-felled, unless the proposal is part of an approved man-
agement plan. Even the enormous visitor numbers of the 1960s and 1970s are unlikely to return, given
the growth of low-cost airlines taking people abroad for holidays. Instead the quality of Gower is being
gradually eroded by external pressures. Creeping suburbanisation through small-scale changes, together
withunsuitabledesignsfornewbuildings,will,ifleftunchallenged,changetheruralcharacterofthearea
forever (Fig. 175). Gower is no place for pavements and streetlights, especially as the gradual reduction
of dark skies and areas of tranquillity are a concern. Species such as glow-worms need darkness if they
are to survive.
Offshore wind power stations, such as that now planned for Scarweather Sands in Swansea Bay, will
blight the views out to sea, and the three proposed onshore developments at Mynydd y Gwair in the
Lordship of Gower, Mynydd Bettws and Waunarllwydd, if built, may also be visible from the peninsula.
Withoutdoubt,however,themostsignificantchangestotheGowerlandscapewillresultfromthereforms
to the Common Agricultural Policy. The situation is complex and influenced by a number of factors, but
asfarmersbegintorelylessonsubsidiesandstarttomakedecisionsbasedontheparticularassetsoftheir
