July 2022
A PLACE OF EXCEPTIONAL BEAUTY
The Dee Estuary is one of the largest and least modified estuaries in the UK. Neither river nor sea, the miles of bare mud and marsh can appear barren, yet estuaries rank along with tropical rainforests and coral reefs as the world’s most productive ecosystems!
Unfortunately, what makes the Dee Estuary special is at risk. Our Dee Estuary / Caru Aber Dyfrdwy is on a mission to connect communities to their shared coastal heritage and help more and a wider range of people learn about, appreciate, and look after their amazing coastal wildlife. Over the next three years, this Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund will deliver outcomes for people, communities, and wildlife, and we want you to be part of it.
OUR DEE ESTUARY ON TV!
Earlier this year the Our Dee Estuary project team were lucky enough to film with the ITV Wales Coast and Country alongside RSPB and the Ranger at Presthaven Sands. Conservation and Volunteering Officer, Charley, showed Presenter Sean Fletcher how to survey for rare natterjack toads and what to look for in sand dune pools. Sean also visited the little terns at Point of Ayr with the RSPB, learning about the importance of the colony and their vulnerability. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to explain to Sean about the Our Dee Estuary project and its partnership approach to helping coastal wildlife. The feature aired on Friday 1st July.
TEACHING THE ESTUARY
Encouraging and supporting communities to learn about our amazing coastal wildlife is something we’re passionate about in the project! We’ve brought teachers from England and Wales together for the first time in a Dee Estuary Teacher Training Programme.
The first of three cohorts is well underway with primary and secondary school teachers undertaking the John Muir Award with their pupils, focussing on discovering, exploring and conserving the Dee Estuary. Our second teacher cohort starts later this year – get in touch to book on!
CITIZEN SCIENCE
After some very successful volunteer training sessions, our citizen science volunteers have been busy surveying and recording wildlife along the estuary. Our team have been focusing on natterjack toads over the last couple of months, painstakingly counting spawn strings and tadpoles, as well as fixing the fences around the ponds and filling them up during dry spells!
Our volunteers are vital to our conservation work, get in touch if you’d like to join our volunteer team. No experience necessary, we’ll teach you everything you need to know!
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF THE DEE ESTUARY
Many people have a newfound appreciation for the sounds of nature, particularly after the pandemic kept us local and got us walking around our nearby green and blue spaces. We want to capture these sounds and encourage local residents to help us!
With support and training from staff at the University of Manchester, University College London, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of Liverpool we are training a group of volunteers to explore the Dee Estuary and record what they hear along the way.
We also have a group of volunteers who have offered their skills to help us capture the sights of the estuary using photography. We hope to put these two forms of media together to create digital resources which we can use to showcase the beauty and diversity of the Dee Estuary to a variety of audiences both local and further afield.
If you would like to contribute to the sights of the Dee Estuary by submitting photographs then please get in touch to find out more.
Photo Credits: Robin Rowe, Dan Trotman, Sarah Bennett, Ryan Woods, David Costello, Paul Steele.
