For my sins, I live and work in London, but next week I'll be in Bontddu for the whole week.
Is there anything going on in the Garth Gell reserve that I could get involved in? Even if it's just clearing rhododendrons or picking up litter, it would be great to do something
Thanks
Dan
Hello,
Sorry for not getting in touch sooner. I have been rushed off my feet for the past two months and I have unfortunately neglected my blog.
There is a weekly work party that is on the Mawddach every Wednesday, if you are up in the future please let me know and we can arrange something then. I personnally don't work weekends and so there are limited volunteer opportunites, however, if you are going around the reserve and you do see litter, please pick it up since leaving it encourages more people to drop rubbish. If on your travels around Garth Gell you see anything out of place on the reserve please let me know, it's always useful to have someone else's opinion as one can get into the habit of not see problems.
Many thanks
Dave
We walked in Coed Garth Gell this afternoon. What a beautiful reserve. It was a rushed visit so we saw jays and squirrels only.
David, we live in the area and you mentioned Wednesday work parties. How can we find out more?
And a comment on accessibility. We walked up the tarmac track from Fiddler's Elbow but as we reached the reserve there is a new fence cutting off access from the track. Only possibilities are to climb over the fence, or to retrace your steps down the hill and find an unmarked gate through the wall.
Thanks for your help
David
I'm glad that you enjoyed your visit to Coed Garth Gell, it's a very special place.
The Mawddach work parties happen every Wednesday and we meet at 10.00 at the National Park car park at Penmaenpool. Although I work with the volunteers most weeks, sometimes they do, do tasks by themselves. Therefore if you are interested, please get in touch so that we can arrange a date to meet. The volunteer work involves various habitat mangement work including killing Rhododendron and managing woodland rides as well as maintaining the visitor trails. It's fairly variable as some of the work is weather dependant and things like fallen trees need to be dealt with ahead of other work.
The trail form the Fiddler's Elbow is not ideal. The footpath in fact cuts through the dry stone wall halfway up the track and follws the wall up on the other side. It's our plan to have RSPB signage in the Fiddler's Elbow car park and way markers up the track helping people along the route, unfortunately lack of time prevented us from doing this last year and so I hope to get something organised later in the season.
Many thanks for your message