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Project Update - 2019
​The team would like to give some feedback from 2019 as it has been an amazing year which has seen an increase in volunteer engagement and also plenty of new opportunities for everyone to get involved and contribute to the conservation efforts along the Northumberland coastline.

From the start of Coast Care in late 2017 until the end of December 2019 there have been 1,459 people volunteer with the initiative and a staggering 25,576 hours volunteered!! There have been 348 group activities providing a range of opportunities to learn new skills from practical conservation to wildlife surveying or coming along to a coffee morning to meet like minded people and talk about their experiences.

Outside of group activities there are many volunteers engaging in a role and logging their own hours for example site wardens have dedicated over 6700 hours alone!

Here is a run down of hours dedicated by registered volunteers per activity category to give an idea of what has been achieved by you all.

CategoryHours
Administrator14
Corporate Partners Activities530
Guide / Walk Leader/Footpath Monitor418.58
Heritage at Risk 454
Historic Environment Monitoring164.25
Photographer406.58
Practical Conservation7688.62
Project Support1331.75
Site Warden6747.53
Wildlife Support Officer 1018.57
Wildlife Surveyor4063.8
Young Rangers807
Total Hours23644.68

There are so many highlights of 2019 to mention, so the team have picked out some of the biggest achievements and a few of their favourite moments:

  • 408 hours at Beadnell Dunes - removing Sea Buckthorn, Pirri Pirri and dune restoration.
  • 369 hours at Bamburgh Castle - removing ivy from the castle ramparts and removing invasive species from the dunes.
  • 361 hours at Embleton Quarry Nature Reserve - Habitat management; grassland management, removing invasive plant species and scrub clearance.
  • 58 beach cleans with 804 people taking part.
  • Scything, dry stone walling and brushcutter training and qualifications were offered to a small group of practical conservation volunteers.
  • Joined Kiko Matthews on her Kik Plastic challenge and assisted Marine Conservation Society with this years Great British Beach Clean's.
  • Bioblitz events at Waren Caravan Park and Embleton Quarry Nature Reserve discovered over 200 species at each site.
  • Over 60 people were trained in Cetacean identification.
  • 8 volunteers attended training to identify the non native invasive plant species Pirri Pirri and using an App they mapped presence along the proposed new England Coast Path.
  • 2 graduate volunteers have cumulatively volunteered 408 hours in their roles and provided an invaluable support and assistance to the team.
  • 15 volunteers trained to create a film as a legacy for Coast Care, we hope to start editing film footage captured by the group very soon with the professional film maker.
  • 9 volunteers surveyed Heritage at Risk buildings within the AONB, spending over 120 hours surveying and photographing.
  • 9 volunteers were given the opportunity to be involved for a week at a live archaeological dig at Spindlestone.
  • 191 people from corporate businesses volunteered 561 hours across various activities.

Thank you all again for these fantastic contributions and we wish you all a wonderful 2020! 

"I met some wonderful people and really felt that my work helped make a difference to my local area."

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