Welsh Dee Trust are partners on a new project led by North Wales Wildlife Trust and funded by the Welsh Government Sustainable Management Scheme. The project called ‘Woodlands for Water’ is working within the Wildlife Trust’s Alyn & Chiwiler living landscape region and will focus on helping the biodiversity of the area, particularly the woodlands and freshwater habitats.  

Welsh Dee Trust through our Water Wise Farming programme will provide advice and funding needed to keep nutrients and soil in the areas where they benefit the farm business and out of the river where they damage freshwater biodiversity. The project will support farmyard infrastructure such as concrete yards, clean & dirty water separation as well as providing advice and support on improving soil health. This will make a dramatic improvement to both the River Alyn and the Chwiler.

North Wales Wildlife Trust will focus on Mixed woodland creation schemes as well as new shelterwoods, riparian woodlands and enhanced parkland through the provision of tree cages. On steep marginal land, usually dominated by gorse and bracken, we will be promoting the innovative method of no-fence tree planting in partnership with Tree Shepherds. Neglected hedgerows will be restored by filling in gaps, double fencing and the demonstration of a new method of rejuvenating hedgerows mechanically, known as wildlife hedge laying.

 The project is being delivered as a partnership with the North Wales Wildlife Trust. The Welsh Dee Trust has been supportive of the Dee invasives non-native species project previously, but this new project is the next step in achieving more with the partnership.

Peter Powell, Programme Manager at Welsh Dee trust ‘ The combined efforts of both organisations delivering to their strengths are really exciting and this partnership will be able to achieve greater outcomes than the sum of work delivered by individual projects.

The project was delayed in its start due to the COVID-19 pandemic but will now run until March 2022.