North Wales FWAG organises Bracken Control Event

As tough as old boots, bracken is a familiar sight as it marches across our counties getting a foothold and then rapidly colonising remote and steep banks removing a diverse landscape and replacing it with a monoculture of waving fronds. It is estimated that bracken is already the dominant plant on over 1 million hectares of land across the UK. Whilst it does have some wildlife benefits when, for example, acting as a replacement for tree canopy in certain instances, the aggressive spreading of bracken is becoming a real problem for farmers and land managers.  It harbours ticks, makes sheep gathering difficult as well as displacing both valuable wildlife habitats and grazing for stock.

The Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) Cymru has organised a bracken day starting in the Canolfan, Glyn Ceiriog near Chirk on Thursday July 2^nd with a forum discussion to look at the ecology of bracken, the future of the plant under climate change and the tools available to farmers and others to check its spread. The forum will be followed in the afternoon with a visit to Berllan Helyg, Tregeiriog by kind permission of Messrs Rupert Greenwell & Aled Jones during which there will be demonstrations of the various methods of control, both chemical and cultural.

Professor Rob Marrs, President of the Heather Trust and Head of Biological Sciences at Liverpool University, is one of the World's leading experts on bracken and will be speaking about the ecology of the plants and the problems of controlling it.

Arfon Hughes of CCW will be speaking about bracken on the Berwyn whilst Dominic Lamb of Monsanto will talk about the chemicals available to control the plant and Mike Davies of MD Air Services will talk about aerial spraying.

Following lunch, there is a site visit for live demonstrations. These demonstrations will include weed wipers from Micron and Logic, a bracken bruiser operated by Cadwyn Clwyd and a range of other machines suitable for bracken control kindly supplied by Hughes Bros of Oswestry. Some plots will also have been pre-treated so delegates can see how various treatments work.

The event is supported by both the Countryside Council for Wales and Monsanto with lunch kindly provided by Mr Peter Farthing.