“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
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.
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