#330: Wildlife Trusts and Living Landscapes: Cley Marshes

Cley Marshes Reserve is managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. 

It is an important place in the history of British birdwatching and conservation.

Its education centre was opened by Sir David Attenborough, who described the place as being particularly significant in these respects.

It also has a rather wonderful view of the reserve and hides heading out to the shingle beach, which can be enjoyed with a cheese and tomato toastie if you're feeling peckish.

There's a good visitor centre space with a series of different art exhibitions and several purchasing opportunities.

The reserve talks about this landscape being a "living landscape" and "a living coast".

It changes twice a day with the tide.

Follow them on Twitter here.

#77: Saltmarsh App

Saltmarshes are an interesting ecosystem and the UK has quite a few of them.

There is a Saltmarsh app available to download.

It is a citizen science app inviting people to submit surveys.

It has a useful section which shows saltmarsh plants to help identify them. This will be helpful for anyone going on, or preparing for a field visit to a saltmarsh.

When I taught 'A' level geography in a previous school in West Norfolk, we used to have an annual trip to the coast for fieldwork. I think those schools who would beable to get to a saltmarsh should consider visiting one. 

There is a good opportunity to test a whole range of fieldwork skills in these environments, and they carry a range of risks to assess as well.

The website, from which the app can be downloaded has a useful guide to saltmarshes.

You can identify the locations of your nearest Saltmarsh using the MAGiC app (see the separate posts on this interactive map to see how it works). I've added the layer below and zoomed into the area of the Wash.