Dozens of volunteers gather to Make a Difference in Snowdonia

The Snowdonia Society held its fourth annual Make a Difference (MaD) Weekend this September, which saw partner organisations, sponsors, volunteers and staff get together in person after a challenging 18 months. Together they undertook a variety of nature and landscape restoration activities over the two days, and succeeded to:

• Clear invasive conifer saplings from 16 hectares of precious peatland habitat.

• Clear 17m² of gorse scrub to expose a prehistoric hut settlement in the Carneddau mountain range.

• Recycle dozens of discarded plastic bottles, glass, cans and paper cups from Snowdon’s Watkin path.

• Collect buckets of rowan, hawthorn and hazelnut seeds for future tree planting projects.

• Remove 35m of fencing and dozens of plastic tree tubes from a native woodland site.
• Remove 15kg of hard-to-reach litter by canoe from the shores of Llyn Padarn.

• Clear half an acre of scrub to provide open sand habitat for dune specialist invertebrates.

• Maintain 13km of footpaths on National Trust land.

Plans are already in place for next year’s event. The Snowdonia Society welcomes those from far and wide to take part to help protect the National Park.

With thanks to everyone who took part, and the project partners: