Green fingered volunteers lend Eryri National Park a helping hand
Members of the Eryri VIP project team are rolling up their sleeves and fast becoming real green thumbs as they continue their commitment to ongoing volunteering work with Eryri National Park.
Following a series of successful volunteering activities over the past six months, the Eryri VIP project team has agreed a monthly programme of activity for 2026 with Eryri National Park. The programme will include activities such as tree planting, vegetation clearance and trail maintenance.
The volunteers will be picking up where they left off in 2025, having last summer worked with the park wardens to help remove Himalayan Balsam along the Mawddach Trail. Himalayan Balsam is an aggressive non-native plant species, often nicknamed the ‘pink invader’ as it can suffocate native plants, damaging biodiversity, as well as leaving riverbanks vulnerable to erosion when it dies back in the autumn.
More recently, the team donned their gardening gloves and got to work potting plants at the Eryri National Park tree nursery at Plas Tan y Bwlch. As the weather gets warmer in the coming months, they will be returning to help plant trees in the Cwm Prysor area in Trawsfynydd.
Etta Trumper at Eryri National Park said: “We’re very grateful to the teams from National Grid and Hochtief UK working on the Eryri Visual Impact Provision project for the practical support they’ve given through their corporate volunteering.
“Their work clearing vegetation at Cwm Prysor and along the Mawddach Estuary has made a visible difference to these important landscapes, and their help at the tree nursery at Plas Tan y Bwlch has been valuable for us to prepare native trees ready for planting this season. This kind of hands-on contribution is hugely appreciated and plays a real part in caring for Eryri’s natural environment.”
Steve Ellison, Senior Project Manager for Eryri VIP, said: “The Eryri VIP project is all about restoring the natural beauty of the Eryri landscape.
“It’s been wonderful to see the team get stuck into activities to help conserve this important landscape and we are thankful to Eryri National Park for their ongoing partnership. We look forward to continuing our volunteering throughout 2026.”
If you have any questions about the Eryri VIP project, please get in touch by emailing [email protected] or calling 0800 019 1898. If we are unable to answer your call immediately, please leave a message and we will get back to you.