River Amman Clean Up

The River Amman as it passes through Brynaman suffers from minor fly-tipping and substantial littering, although a lot of this waste is carried downstream from other valleys towns. This stretch of the river is on the county boundary between Carmarthenshire and Neath Port Talbot - it also seems to act as litter net.

This stretch of the river was cleaned about a year ago. To maintain its cleanliness, another clean up was arranged for today by Keep Wales Tidy, as part of Tidy Wales Week 2008. The surrounding area (the rugby field) was also litter picked.

Assisting in the event were local residents, members of BrynAman Street Elite (BASE) and a member of Fiends of Ynys Dawela.

Picking litter out of the river.

Dan Snaith from Keep Wales Tidy wades in deep under Brynaman's bridge.

Angela from Friends of Ynys Dawela.

Dan finds a Polaroid camera inside its case in the river!

Hauling the litter up the bank of the River Amman.

The large pile of litter collected, including some road signs that must have been thrown off the bridge.

After the clean up and just as the rain started coming down, Kathryn from Keep Wales Tidy made everyone a nice cup of tea and passed around the biscuits in the Pensioner's Hall.

Friends of Ynys Dawela

Members of Friends of Ynys Dawela

The Ynys Dawela nature park in Brynaman has been open for 15 years and for the past six years Friends of Ynys Dawela have been promoting the park to local residents and volunteering time to carry out conservation work in the park. Members of Friends of Ynys Dawela also keep a general eye on the park - ensuring the park is used as it should be and also monitoring the wildlife.

This year Friends of Ynys Dawela have been concentrating on encouraging young people in the area to enjoy Ynys Dawela and to take ownership of the park. The group has sucessfully worked with ASBO who, with support from Keep Wales Tidy's Pride In Our Communities project, have adopted the park. ASBO has carried out conservation work and litter picks.

A number of orienteering sessions have also been held for young people in the Brynaman area, provided by Swansea Bay Orienteering Club.

One of ASBO's conservation afternoons and two orienteering sessions are featured on this blog -click on the 'Friends of Ynys Dawela' category link to see the posts.

Orienteering Training at Ynys Dawela - Week 2

The weather wasn't kind to us on the second of three orienteering training sessions run by Swansea Bay Orienteering Group at Ynys Dawela nature reserve. There was rain and heavy hail. Ran joined Justyn and Cerian on their trail - some of the photos that they took are shown below. Despite the weather, we persevered with the compass and completed the trail successfully.

Wellies were useful in the mud.

Ran's walking shoes got soaked.

The heavy rain clouds

Short video filmed by Karmen from Friends of Ynys Dawela

Orienteering Training at Ynys Dawela

Swansea Bay Orienteering Club is running three orienteering training sessions at Ynys Dawela in Brynaman. Below are photos taken at the first session. For more information on the upcoming training sessions, see the club's website at www.sboc.fsnet.co.uk

Setting out with the map

Hmm... which way to go?

This way!

Finding one of the markers

An orienteering success!

ABSO Conserve Ynys Dawela

On Wednesday 13 February, the All Skate Boarding Outcasts (ASBO) youth group of Brynaman spent the afternoon doing conservation work at Ynys Dawela Nature Reserve. In conjunction with Keep Wales Tidy's Pride In Our Communities project and The Friends of Ynys Dawela group, ASBO trimmed pathway hedges, removed grass that was growing through the concrete in the car park and gave the area a good tidy up. The weather was fantastic, which made the afternoon even more enjoyable.

Joe and Chris introduce ASBO. Filmed by Will.

Karmen of The Friends of Ynys Dawela. Taken by Zac.

Chris and Will trimming the hedges. Taken by Zac.

Joe removing the grass growing through the concerete of the car park. Taken by Curly.

James making sure Rufus, Karmen's dog, is happy. Taken by Luke.

There were plenty of frogs and frogspawn in the pond. The male frogs were making quite a noise - at first, many people thought a plane was in the air.

Frog photo taken by Carwyn on his mobile phone and sent by Bluetooth to Ran's mobile for uploading onto this blog.