Protecting Pumlumon.
Some forty thousand acres of Mid Wales, in and around the Pumlumon mountains, are to be managed by several wildlife trusts and other bodies to encourage sustainable farming - at the same time as protecting wildlife. Cattle used to graze these hills but now they are populated by thousands of sheep. Wetlands, which once acted as sponges for heavy rainfall, have to a large extent been replaced by well drained forests and compacted moorland, which means rainwater runs off swiftly - one of the causes of a growing flooding problem in the lowlands. Now there are to be changes in the management of these areas - bringing back cattle, encouraging and restoring wetlands and paying the farmers to do the work. It's being carried out with the aid of Welsh Assembly Government money and could be extended to cover other large areas of the Welsh mountains.
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