BMC volunteers help to protect Eryri's mountainside, flora and fauna

Access News
27 Aug
2 min read

This August, a team of 12 BMC volunteers helped to protect the mountains of the Glyderau, Eryri (Snowdonia) as part of the BMC Access & Conservation Trust's Get Stuck In programme.

BMC volunteer and Get Stuck In leader Roy Hammond reports:

DAY 1

On Wednesday 20 August, 12 BMC volunteers spent a day reprofiling (re-shaping) peat hags at around 800m on Glyder Fach. This is done to stabilise eroding peatlands, preventing the release of carbon, mitigating climate change and supporting biodiversity. We have worked in this area a few times over the past couple of years and it was great to check progress on previous reprofiling work. In the evening, we had a talk from a local botanist and ecologist who gave an overview of the issues faced by our upland environments and discussed the benefits of the work that we had undertaken during the day.

DAY 2

On Thursday 21 August, the volunteer team walked up through Devil’s Kitchen in the Glyderau and undertook path maintenance and cairn scattering on Y Garn. Excessive cairns can be harmful to natural environments by displacing wildlife habitats, contributing to erosion and disrupting natural soil structures. Cairn scattering enables natural environments to recover over time. We rounded off the day with wild swimming and bat hunting!

DAY 3

On the Friday, we had a very enjoyable group scramble up Moel Siabod via the Daer Ddu ridge.

Will you Get Stuck In too?

Get Stuck In events are single and multi-day volunteer events in the Peak District, Lake District and North Wales. Hill walking fitness and experience, plus a packed lunch is required, but durable waterproofs and steel-toe-capped boots can be borrowed. On the multi-day events like this, volunteers do two days hard labour with National Trust rangers on the footpaths of Eryri (Snowdonia) or the Lake District, while the third day is reserved for a rewarding group hike, climb or pub/cafe outing. You stay free of charge for three nights in basic, bunkhouse-style accommodation and there is a communal meal one evening. Single day events in the Peak District involve planting sphagnum moss and clearing invasive species.

Get Stuck In events are funded by the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust as part of the Mend Our Mountains campaign. Please give generously here and check out the latest volunteering opportunities here.

Peat hags loose more carbon-containing soil if left bare like this, so it's important to reprofile them cover with protective surface vegetation
Large cairns can disrupt the fragile mountain environment and the National Trust decides which should be dispersed.

Will you help us repair more footpaths?

The BMC's Access & Conservation Trust is currently fundraising for an exciting, new, 2-year Apprentice Ranger role with the National Trust Footpath Team in Eryri (Snowdonia). These ancient path-making techniques are exactly the type of skills and knowledge they will be learning. They will also be leading more Get Stuck In volunteer footpath repair events. Please give generously here if the footpaths in Eryri mean something to you.

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. We would welcome another ranger in Eryri to help run even more Get Stuck In events going forward."

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.

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

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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