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Big Dee Day – The Invasion
Published: 02/06/2014
Organisations across North Wales and Cheshire are appealing for volunteers to
help eradicate invasive non-native species from the River Dee and its
tributaries.
The Big Dee Day – The Invasion event is in its second year and tackles invasive
non-native plants and animals, such as Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and
Chinese mitten crab.
The coordinated programme will begin with a public launch on Saturday 28 June
at Ty Mawr Country Park in Cefn Mawr, Wrexham with various events running, from
the river’s source in Snowdonia National Park right through to its estuary,
until 31 July.
The event is open to everyone across the region to help remove invasive
non-native
plants from the River Dee and its tributaries and to record infested areas. The
species that will be tackled are alien species, brought to the UK either
accidentally or intentionally, which can cause big problems for native
wildlife, as well as having other effects such as making river banks more prone
to erosion, which can lead to flooding.
A partnership of Welsh and English organisations including five local authority
Countryside Services, Snowdonia National Park Authority, DINNS Project, Keep
Wales Tidy, the Welsh Dee Trust, the Dee Valley and Clwydian Range AONB,
Chester Zoo, Record, Cofnod and Natural Resources Wales are involved in
organising the event.
Lyn Byrne, Dee Invasive Non-Native Species Project Officer said: “The Big Dee
Day – The Invasion event is an exciting initiative that saw a great deal of
involvement from local communities in 2013. This year we aim to make the event
even bigger and better than before by including more people in more areas.”
Councillor Bernie Attridge, Flintshire County Councils Cabinet Member for
Environment Said: “This is a great opportunity for us all to make a really
positive impact on the River Dee and our local environment. I’d encourage
anyone who is interested to get involved and find out and go along to their
nearest event and help out.”
If you or your group would like to get stuck in with balsam bashing or knotweed
whacking, or if you fancy spying on the alien invaders and recording their
locations contact Sarah Slater at Flintshire County Council on 01352 703263 or
sarah.slater@flintshire.gov.uk for more information.
For more information on the project contact Meryl Norris, DINNS project officer
at North Wales Wildlife Trust on 01352 755472 or email
merylnorris@wildlifetrustswales.org
Photo caption: Himalayan Balsam.
Notes to editors
The Big Dee Day – the Invasion is a sister event to the annual Big Dee Day
river clean-up event.
A calendar of events should be available in the next few weeks.