The Aberdyfi Biodiversity and Climate Change group has been busy planting trees.

The group was formed in 2020 by Aberdyfi residents, Phil and Katie Morgan.

“We wanted to help raise local awareness that we can all play a part in protecting wildlife and our climate for future generations,” said Phil. Planting hedges and trees is a simple way to do this, creating homes for insects and birds, and also absorbing carbon at the same time.

“When I was a child and you drove a car at night in summer, it would be covered in insects the next day. Today this rarely happens due to the loss of trees and hedgerows as farming practices have encouraged large scale fields. As a result there has been a huge reduction in the bird populations as their food and habitat disappeared.

“This trend is now in reversal and hedges and trees are being reinstated where possible. There are lots of free trees and hedge plants available on the internet as the government is putting money into the climate change initiatives.”

He added: “We were delighted to hear Welsh Government are offering a free tree to every household to plant in their gardens or to have added to woodland on their behalf. Here in Aberdyfi we are planting in the appropriate setting, a mixture of blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel and silver birch.

“It is great the local community can play its part in helping to protect our wildlife and climate for our children and future generations.

“A big thank you to the volunteers who came to help. We have already made a very promising start to the big climate change challenge that we all have ahead of us.”

If anyone would like free trees or hedge plants, or know of a place to plant, please let Phil know via the group’s Facebook page.