Why Not Volunteer for the Solway Coast National Landscape (SCNL).
The days are getting longer and spring feels like it’s finally here. Why not make the most of the warmer weather and join the SCNL team for a volunteer day out on the Solway Coast?
Date: Thursday 3rd April
Meet: 10am at Crosscanonby Carr Nature Reserve car park, CA15 6SL, What3Words tens.simulates.transmitted
Bring: Lunch and drink, clothes and footwear suitable for task and expected weather – wrap up warm.
Task: You will be tidying up Crosscanonby Carr Nature Reserve ready for the summer – lots of tasks around the site including cutting back overhanging branches, litter picking and clearing the paths of overgrown vegetation.
Date: Monday 7th April
Meet: 2pm at Mawbray Banks south car park, CA15 6QS, What3Words nowadays.tolerable.sprays and we will walk along to the beach from there. They aim to finish and be back at the car park by 3.30pm
Bring: Drink/snack for afterwards, clothes and footwear suitable for task and expected weather – wrap up warm as it can be chilly on the beach.
Task: Join Sophie to clean as much marine litter and debris as possible off the shoreline at Mawbray Banks. Alongside the beach clean you will also be doing a survey of the litter found so that it can be added to the Marine Conservation Society beach litter database.
Date: Thursday 24th April
Meet: 10am at Mawbray Banks south car park, CA15 6QS, What3Words nowadays.tolerable.sprays
Bring: Lunch and drink, clothes and footwear suitable for task and expected weather – wrap up warm.
Task: You will be repairing some of the pedestrian gates that lead on/off Mawbray Banks and then doing some more scrub maintenance.
A little litter story
During the March beach clean at Grune Point SCNL found a plastic lid from a tube of Smarties. I’m sure many of you remember popping the lid off the round cardboard tube and having some of the multicoloured chocolatey treats! These wash up and are found surprisingly regularly on beach cleans. What’s more surprising is that plastic lids stopped being used on tubes of Smarties in 2005. So any lids that are found washed up have been floating around in the sea for at least 20 years. With a bit more research it was found that having ‘Rowntree’ on one side and a capital letter ‘A’ on the other side puts the production of our lid to between 1965-1975. That’s potentially 60 years old! It shows that plastic can linger for a long time in the oceans before it washes up and can be removed and a reminder to recycle appropriately where we can.
If you wanted to be added to the WhatsApp group email Sophie at info@solwaycoastaonb.org.uk