Our Dee Estuary 2023!

Welcome to the last newsletter of 2023 and a chance for the team and everyone involved in the Our Dee Estuary project to celebrate our achievements over the last 12 months.

The graphic above was created for us by the amazing team at Heritage Insider. Kate and her team are helping us to evaluate the work we do at Our Dee Estuary to make it even bigger and better. Thanks Kate!

ONE ESTUARY

This year we have been strengthening and streamlining the collaboration and communication between the team, wider partners, and stakeholders working around the Dee Estuary.

These partnerships have already successfully produced positive outcomes for nature through the installation of a new wader scrape at Burton Mere Wetlands and improvements to the reedbed in Neston to safeguard against future fire damage.

Our work with citizen scientists monitoring water quality has been an important component of the progress made by the Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership and Our Dee Estuary to create a feedback loop between communities, water companies, and authorities aiming to improve water quality in our catchment.

We held two stakeholder workshops this year to develop the idea of a Dee Estuary Coastal Partnership. This would expand the focus of the catchment partnership outward from water quality to other coastal issues including climate, biodiversity, development, and community wellbeing. When this partnership is launched fully in the new year, we will be able to deliver projects and make management decisions as a unit to ensure that the Dee Estuary is better managed and protected for people and wildlife.

However, we can’t do this alone…

We are looking for Dee Estuary wilder champions to help us. Champions are people who are stepping forward to lead and support others to take action for nature in their local communities, schools or places of work. If this sounds like you then we can help and support you. If you would like to find out more and join a network of like-minded people please get in touch with the team.

Email the Our Dee Estuary Team

LOVE MY ESTUARY

Love my Estuary is all about encouraging people to get out and about and explore the Dee Estuary. One of the first ways people can interact with the estuary is via social media and this year we have grown our following by over 500 people. Social media is often the place where people go for ideas for days out and events they can get involved in. This year the team attended over 30 events, 24 of which were run by our team.

When people go out to explore the estuary it is nice to enhance their experience with helpful and educational signs and this year the project has helped to design and install 5 signs with 2 more in the pipeline for early 2024.

Three signs are located at points along the Wirral Way to help inform people about the wildlife and the history of Wirral Country Park in celebration of its 50^th anniversary this year. The first is at the Thurstaston visitors centre where people can learn about the “rocks” by the pond which are glacial erratics, carried here 19,000 years ago by a large glacier that carved out the Dee Estuary. The second is a sign marking Dawpool Nature Reserve, on an old landfill site next to the Sailing Club that is now a thriving nature reserve. The third and final sign will be installed at Cubbins Green and tells the story of this protected green space and what it means to the local community.

Two signs are located at Gronant Dunes in Denbighshire and were created in collaboration with Denbighshire County Council. One is a map to help guide visitors safely through the sand dunes to the beach and show them the wildlife they might spot along the way and the other sign is an overview of the site again with wildlife and habitats that are found there. This site is part of our access works as it will enable visitors to access the beach and explore the dunes safely without disturbing the habitats and wildlife that lives there.

Looking ahead to 2024 next year will see the launch of a Dee Estuary website along with many more events taking place all around the coastline of Our Dee Estuary and so much more and we hope to see you there!

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COASTLIVES

This year the Coastlives work has been focused on building relationships within the local communities of the Dee Estuary to get more people connecting with the nature around them.

Early in 2023 we held a series of wellbeing with nature events across the Dee Estuary which were a great success, so much so that we have secured additional funding to run even more of these events in 2024!

In spring we had a bumper breeding season for Natterjack toads at Red Rocks Nature Reserve with over 200 toadlets emerging from the breeding ponds. Next year in January and February we will be doing some maintenance on the ponds to make sure they are in tip top condition for the breeding season.

Butterflies were an important part of our work again this year with Grayling butterfly surveys for both caterpillars and butterflies taking place at Red Rocks on the Wirral and Talacre in Flintshire. We are so grateful for the volunteers who helped us establish a regular butterfly survey at Red Rocks as this information goes directly to our partners at Butterfly Conservation where it is put into a national database and used by conservationists to learn more about the status of butterfly species across the UK.

Over the last twelve months we have continued to grow our army of volunteers who participate in many different activities from water quality testing to photographing the Dee Estuary so we would like to say a great big thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time on the project.

2024 will bring a fresh face to the Coastlives work as we welcome a Community Engagement Officer to the team. You will get to meet them in early 2024!

Photo Credits: Heritage Insider, Emily Lake, Kat Wade, Hannah Phillips, RSPB, Claudia Smith, Charley Dutton, Our Dee Estuary staff.