Llyn National Landscape awarded Ffermio Bro funding to a project to restore heritage features, improve habitat connectivity and protect the iconic chough that call the area home. 

Tŷ Fry is an area of picturesque farmland right at the tip of the Llyn Peninsula, and the team there are keen to manage the land in a more nature-friendly way. They applied for Ffermio Bro funding to rebuild the cloddiau earth bank field boundaries that are characteristic of the local area, and to restore existing hedgerows and plant new ones.

Ifan Parry, Ffermio Bro officer for Llyn National Landscape (who works as part of a team based within Eryri National Park) said: 
‘Initially there was concern that the new hedgerows would reduce the amount of foraging habitat for the local choughs, but with the advice of the local RSPB team, we assessed that the risks were quite low. The work has actually proven to be a big success with the cloddiau providing even more useful foraging for the choughs.’

The works saw almost a kilometre of new hedgerow created, as well as 500m of cloddiau, returning the landscape to more traditional management, and a series of scrapes installed, providing valuable habitat for wading birds. All the trees for the hedgerows were grown locally in the Eryri tree nursery, making them ideally suited to the local area. The restored boundaries meant smaller field compartments for sheep, enabling the graziers to manage them more easily, and creating more shelter which means they can remain outdoors, eating fresh grass for more months of the year. 

The restored cloddiau and hedgerows are fantastic habitat which the team hope will soon attract RSPB red-listed Yellowhammers, whose numbers have declined by around two thirds since the 1960s, and the pollinators they depend on for food, and small mammals are already benefitting from the additional shade provided by the hedgerows.