#582: Otter Valley Association

The Otter Valley Association was founded in 1979.

The OVA is a civic society founded to interest residents and visitors in the history, geography, natural history and architecture of this area of Devon. The OVA covers the area of East Devon from Newton Poppleford and Harpford to Budleigh Salterton following the River Otter down to the sea.

We visit the River Otter every summer during our holidays down to Devon, where we always end up in either Otterton or Budleigh Salterton or some other location along the river's course.

#518: Beaver Trust

The Beaver Trust is a UK based charity.

It's aim is to support the reintroduction of beavers because of the work they do in the landscape to help change the landscape to become more resilient to climate change, and to reduce the flood risk on the rivers they live on due to the dams they build. 

They have also produced a short documentary which is described as follows:

A brand new short documentary produced for Beaver Trust, following science communicator Sophie Pavelle on a journey of discovery, as she visits sites around Britain where beavers have been reintroduced. Meeting the extraordinary people behind their story so far, this film explores what a future might look like, with beavers living wild in our landscapes and rivers across Britain.

A pair of beavers that were released into the wild have bred for the second timehttps://t.co/R06LL0rZMk

— BBC North West (@BBCNWT) July 18, 2023

It would be worth focussing on beavers.

The Beaver is Europe's largest rodent.

Have you seen them in the wild?

#326: Lower Otter Restoration

Retired Geography teacher Paul Berry writes a blog called Devon Geography.

A recent post explores the project to allow the restoration of the lower reaches of the River Otter in Devon, as it approaches Budleigh Salterton, through managed realignment.

It's an area I know well. I've been visiting the town each summer for at least 15 years - staying in a range of holiday homes and with family.

Image: Otter Restoration Project

The blog post would be useful as it includes an area where there have been attempts to reintroduce beavers (not otters) into the river to assist with flood management.

The area is changing rapidly as the scheme starts to take shape.

Here's an image of the mouth of the distinctive trees at the mouth of the river. 

It's one of a number in my Flickr album entitled: GCSE Natural History, which is growing (now up over 100 images) and which everyone is free to use once resources start to be developed as an additional offering from our suite of resources.

#139: Lydford Gorge: temperate rainforests

A news report from the BBC explores the UK's few temperate rainforests. I have mentioned Guy Shrubsole's book before - a copy is in my Natural History library and will be featured on the blog as well and in the reading lists we are making.

The story looks at Lydford Gorge in Devon, a place I've visited a few times over the years.

A reminder of the need to protect what we have. There are some particularly rare lichens in the woods, including one in Somerset which is the only known location where it is found.

The article says:

Lichens are a particularly unusual class of organisms found in temperate rainforests.

The plant-like living things are made up of fungi growing in association with other life forms, such as algae. There are more than 2,000 species in Britain and Ireland alone, many of which are found in temperate rainforests,

The horsehair lichen Bryoria smithii is known at only two rainforest sites in Britain and Arthonia thoriana, a rare comma lichen, is not known anywhere else in the world other than at Horner Wood in Somerset. 

Temperate rainforests are made up of oak, birch, ash, pine and hazel woodland, but the ash trees are suffering from ash dieback.