UK Nature and Environment

Funding has been secured to monitor and protect Black Grouse in North Wales.

The species is celebrated for its lively leks, where males gather and display to watching females. A recent episode of Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir on Sky TV featured a Black Grouse lek in the region's hills. However, numbers have fallen by an estimated 45% since 2018.

After a successful bid to the Nature Network Funding programme, work will be carried out in partnership between RSPB Cymru, Natural Resources Wales and Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape to monitor numbers of lekking Black Grouse more accurately in the project area.

The funding will also be used to deliver best practice for sustainable upland management for a wide range of species, as well as enabling the development of a landscape-scale conservation strategy that works for the uplands, woodlands and the communities of north-east Wales. Targeted conservation management is known to work and, as well as sustaining and increasing numbers, can provide multiple other benefits including carbon storage, habitat creation for other wildlife and prevention of wildfires.