Our project team is changing
We’d like to tell you about some changes taking place within the project team. We have successfully secured funding for an assistant to join our team for 6 months and we are pleased to say we have just recruited for this role.
Additionally we are sad to announce that our Conservation and Volunteering Officer is leaving us at the end of November. We have reassessed this role and it is now a Community Engagement Officer and we are recruiting for this now. All the details on how to apply are at the bottom of this newsletter.
The Our Dee Estuary Team
NEW SIGNS AT WIRRAL COUNTRY PARK
We are pleased to announce that our first set of fixed interpretation signs have now been installed at Wirral Country Park.
There are 3 signs for you to visit. The first is located near the Visitors Centre by the large rocks which are glacial erratics. The second sign is a bit further down the Wirral Way at Dawpool Nature Reserve and finally the third sign will be located at Cubbins Green but is yet to be installed.
We really hope you enjoy learning a bit more about these sites and we would love your feedback on the signs too!
The creation of these signs would not have been possible without the rangers at Wirral Country Park, with special thanks to Jo Hanik. Many thanks to Prof. Jim Marshall for his contribution to the project as our Geology expert and finally thanks to EllenP Designs design vision and endless patience in this project.
OUR WORK WITH OPEN WATER SWIMMERS
Conservation organisations believe that conservation starts with getting people to connect with nature. There are few people better connected with nature than open water swimmers. Swimmers are fully immersed in nature, out in all conditions and consequently also immersed in some of the worst of what the natural world is battling against.
Most topical, is the rubbish and sewage that gets dumped into rivers and seas. All our rivers and seas should be safe to swim in. If that was the case, they’d all also be teeming with diverse species, and supporting huge populations of invertebrates, fish, animals and plants. That is clearly not the case. Only 14% of rivers are in good ecological status and only 1% are in a near-natural condition. In our region, swimmers are right on the front-line of efforts to make things better.
The number of humans on earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years and the population of England and Wales has grown from around 5 million in 1800 to 67 million today. That is a lot of additional mouths to feed and a lot of waste to treat. Long before 1800s, our poo went on the fields because night-soiling was crucial for maintaining soil to ensure that crops grew successfully. That was simple, sustainable, and supported a thriving ecosystem.
As our populations grew and people moved to the cities, all that valuable organic matter and natural fertiliser “waste” got flushed into the rivers. Modern techniques have managed to remove a lot of the “sludge” and harmful bacteria from “waste”, but most of the nitrate and phosphate – the fertilizer, still goes into the rivers. So even if everything works as intended, our rivers and seas still get flushed full of stuff that shouldn’t be there. But everything doesn’t work as intended, so swimmers are frequently exposed to pathogens too.
We all have a role to play. Every new house, path or driveway made of impermeable materials sends more water into the sewers which overloads them more frequently and for longer durations, sending raw sewage into the rivers. Home renovations and extensions have often resulted in misconnections that send foul or polluted water straight into surface water systems that discharge directly into the rivers without being treated.
Here are some things you can do to help!
- Pressure the utility companies to comply with current regulations.
- Politically, things are getting worse, not better for rivers, so:
- demand your political representatives retain good environmental legislation – like Nutrient Neutrality, and obligations under the Water Framework Directive;
- then, demand they make the legislation tougher.
- Check your local river or beach and record sewage pollution events. Water companies should shortly be declaring every time a sewage release occurs, so if one has not been declared, report it.
- If your local stream looks grey, all the time – it is very sick. Check your home for misconnections and encourage your neighbours to do the same.
- Join a citizen science programme such as Welsh Dee Trust or Mersey Rivers Trust.
- Add sustainable drainage systems to your driveways and paved areas allowing the water to soak into the ground and not go down the drain.
Install ponds and rain gardens in land you own, at your school, or find out how to install them in common, abandoned or council land.
FLINTSHIRE’S COASTAL WILDLIFE AND COMMUNITY
Flintshire County Council have produced a series of videos about different topics that have links with the Dee Estuary from food and supply chains to wildlife and keeping active.
Here are just a few of our favourites for you to watch but if you’d like to watch them all then the playlist can be found by visiting the playlist on YouTube – Flintshire’s Coastal Wildlife and Community.
Wildlife at Connah’s Quay
Learn more about the wildlife significance of Connah’s Quay
Connah’s Quay Docks – Past to Present
The history of Connah’s Quay docks told by local residents
HISTORY AND NATURAL HERITAGE OF THE DEE ESTUARY
Emily, our Communications and Campaigns Officer, is getting more and more interesting information coming in from her History and Natural Heritage volunteers.
Check out some of the highlights below. We will also be sharing content on social media so follow us for more history and heritage!
RAF on the Dee Estuary during WWII
The Dee Estuary has always been used by the RAF for training flights and the war years of 1939-45 were no exception.
Sadly, during the course of their exercises there were 26 aircraft lost at locations all across the estuary including Talacre, Hoylake, Neston and Saltney Ferry among others.
They include a total of ten Spitfires and four Hurricanes and in many instances involved loss of life.
There was also one German Heinkel shot down over Bagillt Marshes in 1941.
A detailed study of the wreckages has been carried out by Liverpool University with summary details on this webpage.
The study also contains details of ships wrecked along the Estuary.
The Holy Rood of Hawarden
Within the boundaries of the Roodee Racecourse in Chester, near the banks of the Dee is a curious cross shaped monument. It is said that this monument was raised to mark the burial place of the Holy Rood of Hawarden which was washed up having been “drowned” in the Dee by the people of Hawarden who had convicted it of the murder of Lady Trawst.
A Holy Rood is a relic said to be a fragment of the True Cross and this particular Holy Rood had fallen from the loft of St Deiniol’s Church in Hawarden and struck Lady Trawst on the head while she was praying for rain. All this is supposed to have happened in the year 946. This is also apparently how the Roodee got its name.
The Curious Clwyd website has more information on this story.
Photo Credits: Wirral Council Rangers, Robin Rowe, Paul Steele, Tom McGovern, Our Dee Estuary.
