Category: Education

“Wow – that was a euphoric moment!” grinned Rhian, GwyrddNi’s Project Coordinator, about the first time she saw moss up close through a hand lens. She had just returned from the Moss Walk, part of the Dyffryn Ogwen Climate Festival in Tregarth, where a group of around 40 interested adults and children had ventured into the woods with the Mapio Mwsog team – and was not the only one struck by the beauty of seeing moss up close.

Throughout the Climate Festival, I saw people walking up to the Mapio Mwsog stand and gaze in wonder through microscopes at something they would normally ignore. Naturally, I wanted to find out more, so I spoke to some of the core ‘moss team’.

Mapio Mwsog is one of the project ideas in Dyffryn Ogwen’s Community Climate Action Plan, although the core ‘moss team’ have been learning and teaching about moss for far longer. Over the last few years, ecologist and artist Emily Meilleur has been leading moss walks in Dyffryn Ogwen. After a while, she was joined by friends Emily Farrel and Alys Wardle, who together spent many long winter Sundays walking through forests with hand lenses, looking for and learning about moss.

“Having grown up in a woodland, my area of interest is how humans relate to the environment,” says Alys. “At the GwyrddNi Climate Assemblies, we had to choose a topic to focus on, and my number one passion is mossing… just how much joy it brings you, how beautiful it is, and how wonderful it is to be outside. We wanted to share what we’d been doing with the wider community.”

Why moss?

For many of us, moss is probably something we don’t pay much attention to. Yet there are between 12,000 and 15,000 recorded species of moss – and they are far more important, and interesting, than you might think.

Mosses are experts at capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as well as absorbing air pollution. I used to think that moss growing on my soil was something to worry about, but now I’ve learnt that moss helps to prevent soil erosion, and helps to regulate soil temperature and retain moisture. Moss contributes to creating healthy ecosystems that support biodiversity and resilience against climate fluctuations. 

Mosses might also help us to monitor subtle changes in our environment: 

“They are great indicators of air quality, and of heavy metals in the environment;” says Robin Wall-Kimmerer, author of the book Gathering Moss, “because they have no epidermis, they’re intimate with the world. They’re storytellers.”

Mosses are also a core part of the story of our green planet: they evolved from green algae around 470 million years ago, making them one of the earliest land plants – in a way making them one of the earliest ancestors of plant life beyond the sea.

“It’s literally the beginning of life, green life!” enthuses Emily Meilleur when I ask her. “And mosses are the foundation of soil. Once moss starts to grow, then you get soils, and then you can grow bigger plants, flowering plants.”

I know I will never look at moss in the same way again! 

The Mapio Mwsog (Moss Mapping) Project

Officially launched on October 21st, 2023, National Moss Day, the Mapio Mwsog project began with a moss walk in Bethesda. Led by Emily Meillieur and supported by Alys Wardle, Emily Farrell, and Catharine Moss, the walk attracted 35 eager participants, who were not deterred by the heavy rain and spent time studying the rich diversity of bryophytes (which covers moss, liverworts and leafy liverworts) growing on trees, rocks, and walls.

Following the project’s launch, the Mapio Mwsog team have been taking people on regular moss walks to study the mosses in the valley, as well as organising art days where both adults and children collect moss samples and use them to inspire poetry and art based on what they see and feel. 

As well as aiming to encourage people to slow down and notice the natural world around them, the Mapio Mwsog projects aims to record and store information about mosses and liverworts in Dyffryn Ogwen. This will help provide a baseline for future monitoring and to track changes over time, providing valuable insights into the ecosystem’s health and resilience.

Starting with nine specific points in Dyffryn Ogwen, the Mapio Mwsog team will record and survey mosses and liverworts – with hand lenses, microscopes and the naked eye. Partneriaeth Ogwen and GwyrddNi will be supporting and promoting the project alongside the moss team.

“It is also connected to the need to protect the nature of place in general. Wales, along with the rest of the world, is an intricate web of different kinds of habitats, each full of life when left to their own devices,” say the team. “What might appear to be a barren landscape can often be teeming with biodiversity, just on a smaller scale than we usually acknowledge… It is focused around awareness and learning the art of observation using mosses and leafy liverworts,as the focus.”

If you want to find out more about the Mapio Mwsog project, to get involved or to join a moss walk, get in touch via Chris, the GwyrddNi Community Facilitator for Dyffryn Ogwen (chris@ogwen.org).

By Gwyneth Jones, GwyrddNi’s Communications Officer

Interesting moss resources:

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall-Kimmerer (book)

The Magical World of Moss, BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001hqth/the-magical-world-of-moss-moss-ancient-ancestor-of-all-plants-and-vital-for-the-health-of-the-planet-205048

Mosses are an amazing ally for soil health – Re-Soil Foundation

Mosses are the lifeblood of plant ecosystems, say researchers – Open Access Government

7 Interesting Things About Moss – article from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens

The secret world of moss, ancient ancestor of all plants and vital for the health of the planet – article in The Conversation

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GwyrddNi is a community-based, community-led climate action movement that brings people together in five areas of Gwynedd to discuss, share and act locally to tackle climate change. 

If you want to be part of co-creating greener, more sustainable and resilient communities – get in touch – or click the button below to let us know how you’d like to be involved. We will get back to you and connect to you to most appropriate person/people!

GwyrddNi’s education offer is carrying on! The intention of GwyrddNi’s education offer is to ensure that children and young people have the opportunity to contribute to solving the climate challenge in their communities.

We did this during the first phase of GwyrddNi by running an education program that ran alongside the Community Assembly process.

There were:

• Sessions about climate change;
• Visits to local climate solutions;
• Assemblies for children and young people;
• Presentations by the children and young people to the community assemblies; and
• Practical action sessions.

It was a privilege to work with so many – 613 learners in total – intelligent, enthusiastic, creative and active children and young people!

It was important to ensure that the voice of the children could be heard during the assembly process – after all, they will live in the future we create. And what a powerful voice it was! All five areas’ Community Climate Action Plans were influenced by the children and young people in one way or another.

“It was great to have the visit from the local primary school children too, sharing their hopes and aspirations for the future. It was really emotional. One thing I noticed that was very good was that they were quite ‘blue sky’ in their way of thinking. They’re not as attached to the practicality of things as adults, which is great because you can lose sight of things you want to aim for because you think ‘well it’s not practical’, but why not aim high, aim for the best results.” said Martyn from the Dyffryn Nantlle Assembly.

Another of our education offer’s aims is to foster links between schools and people or groups in the community who are acting on climate. In some areas, connections have already grown: after a day of visits to local climate solutions organised by GwyrddNi, Brynrefail High School is now sending groups of students to volunteer at Tyddyn Teg’s cooperative and organic farm. Also, in Bro Ffestiniog, students requested to do their work experience with one of the organisations that was part of their visit, after learning about its work during the day.

The children’s feedback was positive: “It was great to have the children of different ages together,” said Ela from Dyffryn Ogwen.

Teachers were also happy with the results of the education programme:

“It was great for the children to learn about the things that are happening in their community to tackle climate change. Many of the children said they were going to discuss the Pesda [Food] Pantry and the Library of Things with their parents. Thank you very much for all the information, it has been a real eye opener for the children” said one teacher about the visits to local climate solutions.

Now that GwyrddNi has received a second round of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we are moving on to our Community Action Phase. The education offer has changed to reflect this.

Sara, our Education Co-ordinator, says “We still offer climate sessions and visits to local climate solutions but the emphasis is now on action – with an opportunity for schools to collaborate with our facilitators and the community to develop or work on projects that tackle the climate challenge.

We will also collaborate with teachers to develop resources for the class on local climate solutions. Once the work with schools has been established we will look at how to develop education about the climate in our communities in general”.

Another exciting development in the world of GwyrddNi education is the appointment of Angharad Owen as Education Officer. Angharad is an asset to the team, with a wealth of experience of working with communities and schools on various environmental and creative projects. She was a member of the Dyffryn Peris Community Assembly on the Climate, and therefore has a deep understanding of what the GwyrddNi movement involves. She will work with the GwyrddNi Community Facilitators to implement the GwyrddNi education offer. Welcome to the team, Angharad!

Here is a video reflecting on the education offer – both what happened in the first phase, and our aims going forward:

If you work in a school in one of GwyrddNi’s areas and want to take advantage of our education offer, get in touch! GwyrddNi Education Co-ordinator: sara@deg.cymru / 07536974982

There’s nothing better than being in the middle of the hustle and bustle of children and young people, especially after a long and quiet lockdown period. And without a doubt, there has been plenty of buzz, discussion, conversation and laughter over the past month as I start to implement the GwyrddNi education programme.

I’m Sara, GwyrddNi’s Education, Engagement and Outreach Officer. The main aim of my work is to ensure that children and young people who live and go to school in the five GwyrddNi areas have the opportunity to learn about the climate challenge and discover solutions to the challenge, before having the opportunity to see those in their square mile. Following this they will also be able to participate in an assembly process, similar to the community assemblies on the climate that GwyrddNi facilitates.

GwyrddNi works in five areas (Dyffryn Nantlle, Dyffryn Ogwen, Dyffryn Peris, Bro Ffestiniog and Pen Llŷn), so we set out to invite schools from these areas to take part in our education programme. It is now full to capacity and already underway, and it’s great to be able to offer this unique experience to pupils in 19 schools in Gwynedd.

The first step of the program was to hold a general workshop on climate change in all schools. These workshops have included a discussion about the interdependent systems on planet earth and the links between different aspects of our communities. We also took some time to learn about the greenhouse effect, the carbon cycle, how burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming, the change to the climate caused by global warming and the effect this has on people around the world. We also discussed our feelings when considering climate change, how we can go about solving the climate challenge, and the importance of all of us taking action within our communities to find ways of living that will help solve the challenge.

It’s great to see the children taking an interest, learning, and especially seeing how much knowledge a lot of them already have.

This is what one pupil at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle had to say after the session:

“Thank you for the session today, I really enjoyed it. It was good because although we were talking about the science of climate change we were talking about other aspects too. And that’s important because climate change is about more than just the science, and we need to see that if we want to do something about it’.

The next stage of the journey is to organise a local circuit for the pupils so that they can see climate solutions in action within their square mile. We have just held these in Dyffryn Nantlle, visiting a host of interesting projects that are being held by our partner there, Yr Orsaf. The children were delighted to see what special equipment Osian has in the Gofod Gwneud (create space), have a go at the instruments in Yr Orsaf’s music studio, visit the wild garden and learn about Yr Orsaf’s fleet of electric vehicles, as well as learning about waste reduction through community schemes such as Llyfrgell y Pethe – the lending library. As you can see, it was a day full of interesting experiences for the pupils, with lots of hands-on learning.

The next step of the education program will be to hold assemblies in the schools, which will include more opportunities to learn, before discussing and deciding together what types of climate solutions that they would like to see in their area. They will have the opportunity to share these with the community assembly which is also being held by GwyrddNi in the area, before putting one of their climate solutions to work in the local community, with GwyrddNi’s help and support.

Who better to contribute to the work of protecting our future than future generations themselves, right?

We would like to thank all the teachers and assistants of the schools that are part of the scheme for your support.