The Council has launched its latest Climate Conversation - Let’s Talk Wildflowers, and we need YOU the public to get involved and have your say this summer.
Already, hundreds of local residents and businesses have joined in our online ‘Let’s Talk Climate Change RCT’ conversation since it launched, giving their views on such things as how the Council can shape its ‘Green’ plans for the future, including the development of Electric Vehicle Charging across the County Borough.
As part of the wider on-going conversation on Climate Change, we are now asking local residents and businesses to suggest locations they think we should consider as part of our Wildflower management programme. We need your ideas and photographs to help the Council plan ahead to next year and beyond.
Let’s Talk Wildflowers
Councillor Rhys Lewis, Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, Well-being and Cultural Services, and also Chair of the Council’s Climate Committee, said: “We are very proud in Rhondda Cynon Taf to not only have a strong heritage and history, but also a very rich and diverse landscape.
“It attracts tourists from around the world, as well as many television companies who are spellbound by our stunning surroundings and are keen to use it as locations within their various television and cinema productions.
“But with our breath-taking surrounding also come the rich and diverse plants, fungi, insects and animals. Our grasslands can play a major role in carbon capture and storage, which is why managing and preserving them is so important to us all.
“Many people are already involved in our Climate Change Conversation, Let’s Talk RCT, but as part of the bigger picture of protecting our planet, we need to hear your views on looking after our Wildflowers.
“Not only is now the time to talk Climate Change, it is also the time to act. If you really do care about our beautiful Rhondda Cynon Taf, we encourage everyone to join us as we ‘Talk Climate Change RCT.’
“There are over 240,000 people living in Rhondda Cynon Taf and together we can all play our part in making a difference to the world in which we live. So please join us this summer and Let’s Talk Wildflowers.”
There are many ways in which you can get involved, including completing our Polls, sharing your photographs of wildflowers you have spotted recently and also by suggesting locations to be considered as part of next year’s Wildflower Management Programme.
There is a vast array of native wildflowers across Rhondda Cynon Taf just waiting to be discovered, and the grass in our parks, countryside, cemeteries, school grounds and road verges are the places to find them.
In RCT, around 130 hectares of land is currently managed for wildflowers (10ha more than last year); that is about the size of 136 football and rugby pitches, with more hopefully being added next year.
The Council use two types of management - conservation grazing and a ‘hay cut’ method. In suitable areas, a small number of livestock, usually cows, graze the fields for part of the year. On road verges and parks, the grass is cut in the autumn and the clippings are collected.
These clippings are then used to create habitat piles (‘eco piles’), which are later used by reptiles and small mammals. Where this is not possible the cut grass is taken to the nearest green recycling centre. Both types of management suit our wildflowers, allowing them to flower and set seed, and removing some of the competing and smothering grass.
Our aim is for Rhondda Cynon Taf to be a Carbon Neutral Council by 2030 and that the County Borough will also be as near as possible to Carbon Neutral by then.
When safe for us to do so, we will be getting out and about in our communities and talking to you about how we can all make a difference and achieve our aims for 2030.
But until then, we would love you to help us to find more and better ways to play our part, as well as tell everyone about the great things that people and communities are already doing in the County Borough.
Please get involved and join our Climate Conversation - Let’s Talk Wildflowers
Posted on 04/06/2021