Stronger Shores marine engagement Cuthbert’s Moor Managing Moors project

By Mark Dinning Head of Conservation

The Stronger Shores project is collaboration at its best, with leading academics and Wildlife Trusts and other nature conservation non-governmental organisations (NGOs) innovating together. The project will fill the evidence gap so that we have a better understanding of the costs and benefits of restoring kelp, seagrass and native oyster habitats. These habitats can reduce coastal erosion and flood risk, and also sequester carbon from the atmosphere, providing a nature-based solution for the climate and biodiversity crises. The project will provide a mechanism for incorporating these nature-based solutions into future coastline management strategies and work along our coasts.

Hosted by South Tyneside Council, Stronger Shores stretches from the Northumberland/Scottish border down the North Sea coast to Skinningrove in Redcar and Cleveland. It is one of the 25 pioneering projects funded by the Government’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme, which seeks to develop and test ground-breaking interventions to improve resilience to flood and coastal erosion risk.

Stronger Shores brings together the Durham, Northumberland and Tees Valley Wildlife Trusts, to deliver activities that will help bring communities to understand the benefits of marine habitat restoration. These activities are linked to work by the partners on seagrass, kelp and oysters, and will be delivered by a Marine Engagement Officer hosted by Durham Wildlife Trust.

The Wildlife Trusts in the North East will be leading seagrass re-introduction trials. The trials use an innovative new modular system pioneered by other Wildlife Trusts operating along the North Sea coast. The modules, loaded with seagrass seeds from the Wildlife Trusts’ seagrass nursery on the Humber, will be inserted into mud and sand habitats in the intertidal zone at select locations along the North East coast. The sites selected are areas where seagrass was previously recorded and has been lost, or where environmental conditions appear to now be conducive for seagrass introduction.

The Cuthbert’s Moor Managing Moors project, is a one-year project focused on the restoration of Cuthbert’s Moor. Acquired last year, this 121-hectare upland moorland site was previously managed as a grouse moor. Project Officer, Rebecca Clark, will oversee the citizen science programme and also commission surveys and habitat restoration.

Cuthbert’s Moor lies within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is part of the Teesdale Allotments Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Teesdale Allotments SSSI is of national importance for its breeding bird assemblage. Across the SSSI, the bird community includes lapwing, snipe, redshank, curlew, golden plover, and black grouse, all species which are declining nationally, due to changes in land use, particularly agricultural intensification. In terms of breeding wader densities, the populations in the Teesdale District of Durham are the most significant in the uplands of England.

The nature reserve is covered by a relatively diverse range of upland vegetation types, which include wet acid grassland and mire and heather communities. The Cuthbert’s Moor Managing Moors project aims to determine which species are utilising these habitats and investigate why some species that might be expected to be found are not present.

Baseline habitat and vegetation surveys are being undertaken this year, together with invertebrate and bird surveys. The surveys will make use of standard survey techniques and also new technologies. This includes work with Durham University on acoustic monitoring of birds, which, if successful, will allow repeat bird surveys to be carried out with much less surveyor effort and, therefore, lower cost.

The survey data gathered, and the work of citizen scientist volunteers, will inform the ongoing management of the site and lead to other research opportunities. By generating detailed survey information and closely monitoring how the site changes, Cuthbert’s Moor will inform conversations around upland habitat management and restoration, and the benefits that good stewardship of sites like this brings.

The Managing Moors Project has been made possible by funding from the ScottishPower Foundation and The Linder Foundation.