Charity eyeing up mountain valley - 22/05/09

A conservation charity is looking to raise more than £800,000 in order to recreate native woodland across a hidden Welsh mountain valley.

The cash will be used by the Woodland Trust to purchase around 1,000 acres (400ha) of land in the Snowdonia mountain range in north Wales.

The organisation hopes to bring great benefit to the local environment by expanding woodland and other wildlife habitats throughout Cwm Mynach and bringing back a number of native trees to the area.

According to the Woodland Trust, the land is being offered at 'considerably less' than the market value and the £865,000 needed will be used for the purchase and management of the area for the first five years.

Eryl Roberts, operations manager for the Woodland Trust in Wales, said: "We have the opportunity here to bring back the oak, the ash and the rowan where the sitka spruce has long held sway."

Most of the Cwm Mynach is presently covered by conifer plantation after the trees were planted in the 1940s in line with the government policy of the time.

Mr Roberts added: "By reducing the number of conifers and flooding the woodland floor with natural light, we will enable the remaining fragments of glorious oak woodland along with the bilberry and heather moorland to grow once more."

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