Preparations are now gathering pace for Big Dee Day – the Invasion – which will be officially launched on Friday 27 June at Ty Mawr Country Park in Wrexham.
The coordinated event is appealing to volunteers and organisations to help remove invasive non-native plants and animals, such as Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and Chinese mitten crab that have colonised the banks of the River Dee.
The public will then be invited to an information and demonstration day to take place on Saturday 28 June at Ty Mawr Country Park in Wrexham from 12.30pm. There will be displays in the visitors centre and a North Wales Wildlife Trust trailer near the riverbank along with demonstrations showing people the different ways to control invasive non-native species.
The information day will kick-start a series of events that will carry on across the region throughout July. Events are open to everyone across the area to help tackle alien invaders right across the Dee catchment, from the river’s source in Snowdonia National Park right through Cheshire to its estuary in Liverpool Bay.
These alien species are brought to the UK either accidentally or intentionally and can cause big problems for native wildlife, as well as having other effects such as making river banks more prone to erosion, which can lead to flooding.
Five local authority Countryside Services, Snowdonia National Park Authority, the DINNS Project, Keep Wales Tidy, the Welsh Dee Trust, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, Chester Zoo, Record, Cofnod and Natural Resources Wales are involved in organising the event.
