£14,000 raised for Eryri Apprentice Ranger in latest Mend Our Mountains appeal

Access News
09 May
2 min read

A huge thank you to everyone who supported our Eryri Apprentice Ranger fundraiser on Big Give this spring, the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign raised a grand total of £14,000!

The BMC's Access & Conservation Trust is incredibly grateful to everyone who gave to our Eryri Apprentice Ranger fundraiser via the Big Give Green Match Fund from 22-29 April. We met our match-funding target of £8,000 well before the deadline, and, in addition, received a fantastic £1,000 pledge from the AMI (Association of Mountaineering Instructors) towards the apprentice's outdoor skill training and a tremendously generous donation from a previous Mend Our Mountains supporter. This brings our current funding pot up to £14,000.

The AMI (Association of Mountaineering Instructors) has given £1,000 for the apprentice's outdoor skills training

These funds will go towards creating a new, two-year Apprentice Ranger role within the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri, as part of our wider Mend Our Mountains campaign. We need to raise a further £53,000 to create this vital role, so don't worry if you missed out on the Big Give fundraiser, you can still support the project here.

This is a first for the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri and a fantastic opportunity for them to pass on essential skills in heritage footpath repair, construction and maintenance, landscaping, tree planting and nursery management, boundary work, drystone walling, fencing, community engagement and sustainable tourism. The Apprentice Ranger will also lead BMC volunteers on Get Stuck In footpath repair events throughout the year.

If you love walking, climbing and mountaineering in Eryri and want to protect this beautiful landscape both in your lifetime and for future generations, please give generously.

NEW Eryri Apprentice Ranger

Give generously if you love hiking, climbing and mountaineering in Eryri and appreciate this National Park's unique beauty and incredible wildlife

Why donate?

With 10.5 million visitor nights spent in Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park in 2023/24, and over 600,000 people climbing Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) every year, the 1,497 miles of footpaths within this 823 square mile park are seeing more footfall than ever before. This is compounded by an increase in extreme weather due to the climate crisis and quickly leads to the following horrors for hill walkers, climbers, mountaineers and outdoor-lovers alike:

  • Footpath erosion
  • Muddy and slippery routeways
  • Deep, ankle-turning gullies
  • Navigational difficulties
  • Trampled vegetation
  • Loss of habitat for wildlife
  • Decreasing biodiversity
  • Soil-wash into waterways
  • Increased flood risk
  • Nutrient imbalances downstream

So, wouldn't it be fantastic if you could do something really meaningful to combat this nightmarish downward spiral of footpath degradation in Eryri? Here's your chance to support a really worthwhile project to actively combat path erosion and educate more people to protect and preserve this stunning, irreplaceable National Park. Donate here.

More about the role

Training up another passionate person on the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri will enable increasing numbers of visitors to access this beautiful area safely, climbing mountain favourites like Yr Wyddfa, Tryfan and the Glyderau without damaging the landscape, creating ugly footpath scars and making the going treacherous underfoot. This will also help to preserve Eryri's unique and often endangered wildlife, such as the Snowdon Rainbow Beetle, Pine Marten, Lesser Horseshoe Bat, Snowdonia Hawkweed, Snowdon Lily and a whole host of rare lichens and mosses.

Ifan Parry, National Trust Cymru Area Ranger with the Footpath Team in Eryri, says, "This is an exciting opportunity to join the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri and to work with other ranger teams in Eryri. It offers an excellent platform to acquire the practical skills needed to become a highly skilled ranger.

"The successful candidate will need to speak Welsh so they can communicate with local landowners, farmers and with other National Trust Cymru rangers in Eryri. The role suits a young person, who will complete an NVQ Level 2 in Environmental Conservation and any other relevant courses at Coleg Glynllifon. Additionally, they will become a qualified Summer Mountain Leader through Mountain Training at Plas y Brenin.

“Our aim is for them to continue with the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri or in footpath and upland preservation work within Wales. These donations will go a long way to help support the footpath restoration and conservation work we do here in Eryri, protecting the landscape that more and more people wish to enjoy."

BMC Hill Walking Rep volunteer Steve Charles (top left) organises the Get Stuck In events

More rangers = more volunteer events

BMC Hill Walking rep and founder of the BMC Get Stuck In volunteer footpath repair events, Steve Charles, says, "I've been going into the mountains all my life and it's great to be able to give back and to feel that you're helping to preserve this precious environment. We need to make our mountain footpaths more resilient to increased rainfall and increased use. Our mountains need to be nurtured, because if we don't do anything, the uplands will be in a much poorer state when we hand them over to future generations.

"During 2023 and 2024, BMC Get Stuck In volunteers clocked up almost 500 man-hours of work in Eryri. They repaired over 520m of footpath, laid 187 stepping stones across marshy ground, reprofiled 80m of bare, eroded peat hags and cleared five helicopter bags full of plastic tree guards. What's more, there are four more Eryri footpath repair events planned for 2025, starting this spring. That will have a huge impact in the mountain environment, and we would welcome another ranger in Eryri to help run even more Get Stuck In events going forward."

Eryri Apprentice Ranger fund

Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise £67,000 in funding for a new a 2-year Apprentice Ranger role within the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri, as part of our wider Mend Our Mountains campaign.

Get Stuck In footpath repair events

Get Stuck In events are 1-3 day opportunities for BMC volunteers to give some love back to the landscapes we love to walk and climb in. There are a range of activities decided on nearer the time of the event according to the National Trust rangers who will be teaching you new skills, explaining more about their footpath repair and conservation activities and working alongside you.

Watch the video here

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