Bangor University moves mountains!

A slate waste tip will confront visitors to this year’s Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells. It has been built by staff from the University of Wales, Bangor, to demonstrate methods that they’re using to restore bare quarry waste with Welsh heathland and broadleaf woodland.

The tip demonstrates that when used carefully, wastes that would normally be sent to landfill can be composted and used to create habitats of high biodiversity. The team responsible, from the University’s School of Agriculture & Forest Sciences, employed on a European Union project called TWIRLS (Treating Waste for Restoring Land Sustainability), are also keen to highlight the conservation value of slate quarries, which can contain rare plants, insects and birds (including chough and peregrine falcon) and industrial features such as inclines and water balances.The team (SAFS) They constructed the tip using 7 tonnes of hardcore and 4 tonnes of blocky slate waste from Penrhyn quarry, Bethesda. The tip was then planted with native tree species including oak, rowan and alder using composts made from garden waste and paper pulp (a by-product of recycling paper).

Also making a presence at this year’s show will be the University’s Centre for Alternative Land Use (CALU), the fifth Farming Connect Development centre. CALU exists to transfer technology to any business in Wales that is interested in horticulture, biomass, alternative crops, alternative livestock and/or farm woodlands.

CALU’s stand at the Royal Welsh Show 2006 will focus on energy crops, horticulture, novel oilseeds and novel cereals. The horticultural displays focus on potatoes for low input farming systems, the production of pot herbs, and the production of exotic mushrooms. Expert staff from ADAS, the Welsh College of Horticulture and Menterra (Gwynedd’s agri-innovation project) will be on hand to answer questions relating to any of these topics.

The biomass area will feature the energy grasses Miscanthus, reed canary grass and switch grass, with expert advisors from ADAS available to provide information on agronomy and contracts. Displays from Menterra, hosted by CALU, focus on lesser known crops, suitable for production across Wales, which can be grown for their oilseeds or their grain.