VANDALS have set fire to a bird hide at the Welsh Wildlife Centre on the Teifi Marches nature reserve at Cilgerran.

The arsonists struck at around 9pm last night (Tuesday, September 24) and the Kingfisher Hide was completely destroyed in the attack.

Gina Gavigan, marketing and development manager for The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales said: “We are devastated that our popular Kingfisher hide was burnt to the ground at approximately 9pm on Tuesday evening in what looks like yet another malicious arson attack at our Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve.

"As a wildlife conservation charity, money is a very limited resource for us.

"When deliberate acts of arson are carried out on reserve buildings, both time and money that could be spent on crucial conservation work to protect endangered species and protect important habitats often has to be spent on replacing these.  
"It really is soul destroying for The Wildlife Trust team, volunteers and visitors. 
"We believe that it would cost in the region of £20,000 to replace Kingfisher hide with something of a similar size but with a fire resistant structure. 
"What happened at the Kingfisher hide really does threaten the future of the reserve, both as an important wildlife haven and as a place for people to enjoy engaging with our Welsh wildlife. Someone knows who carried out this attack.
"We are appealing to the local community in Cilgerran and Cardigan to help us by being our eyes and ears as the police conduct their investigation. 
"We are working with our insurers to assess the damage and hopefully implement fire preventive action to avoid this happening again.”
"We appreciate your support at this dreadful time. Thank you for all the messages of support and offers of help.
“Obviously it is early days but we will let people know how they can get involved and help and appreciate all the offers.
"We have set up an emergency appeal to support the replacement of the hide and to review security options."

You can support the appeal by visiting welshwildlife.org/appeal/teifi-marshes-emergency-hide-appeal/
The Trust suffered a spate of vandalism back in 2015 which saw which saw the previous hides suffer regular damage before finally being burnt to the ground.
“It is heart-breaking and we cannot understand why anyone would want to target the reserve,” added Gina.
“We are trying to inspire people to get outside and experience the benefits of seeing the wildlife. 
“We have worked with local children and engaged with them and used graffiti to decorate the hides and get the message across but for this to happen again is such a shame.”
Anyone with information relating to this incident is asked to contact Dyfed Powys Police on 101 quoting reference number DP-20190924-307.