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The Snowdonia Environment. Surrounded by sea on three sides, Wales' border with England (to the east) still runs roughly along Offa's Dyke, the giant earthwork constructed in the 8th century. Wales has three main mountain ranges - Snowdonia in the north the Cambrian Mountains in the centre and the Brecon Beacons in the south. These once glaciated mountain areas are deeply cut by narrow river valleys. The backbone of rolling moorlands stretches from Denbigh in the north to the old coal mining valleys of modern mythology in industrial south Wales, ending on the west coast in spectacular cliffs. The population is concentrated in the northeast, south and southeast. Much of Wales was once covered by oak and other broad-leaved forests, but only a few such forests now remain. There are still some magnificent examples of indigenous forest especially in Snowdonia National Park but conifer plantations have been planted in some areas. Seabirds love the lengthy Welsh coastline and harbours 30% of the world's Manx Shearwaters and some of the largest Gannet colonies on the earth. Inland, you will find the strong hold of red kites in the British Isles and the greater horseshoe bat is also confined to the area as well. Parts of Wales is also one of the few remaining bastions of the red squirrel while grey seals and dolphins are common on the west coast. Some
might say that Wales 'suffers' from an excess of rainfall - that
said, the winters can be very mild and the summers never get suffocatingly
hot. But this Atlantic climate is the key to our green hills and
lush valleys, to the annual migration of salmon and 'sewin' and
the long mellow autumns and sparking springs. The hilly and varied
terrain makes interesting travelling and walking- the closeness
of the mountains to the shores give an unequalled opportunity
of walking to the top of the highest mountain range southern Britain
in the morning and enjoying a swim in the afternoon. All this
gave Wales a crucial role in Darwin and Wallace's search for the
origin of species, in the history of geology, in the development
of the romantic movement in poetry and painting, in rock climbing
and mountaineering and, indeed in the very idea of the tourist
and the traveller.
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