SUCES x Dynamic Dunescapes Beach Art Event
By The Conservation Society (Amy Shorley and Karolina Yagüe)
Hi everyone, we’re the Swansea Conservation and Ecology Society! We’re passionate about the environment and our aim is to get more people outdoors, learning, exploring and doing their bit for nature. We organise a range of events and socials throughout the year, including beach cleans, nature walks, pub quizzes, rocky shore bingo, and much more!
Most recently we teamed up with David Kilner – South Wales’ Public Engagement Officer for Dynamic Dunescapes, for a day of beach cleaning, art and surveying to get more people out enjoying nature!
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Dynamic Dunescapes is an incredibly important project to restore sand dunes across England and Wales for the benefit of wildlife, people and communities. Sand dunes are listed as the most ‘at risk’ habitat across Europe and are super important habitats for plant and animal wildlife, including species like the natterjack toad and sand lizard!
The aims of this project within South wales are to support, protect and conserve areas of our Dunes in places such as Three Cliffs Bay, Oxwich Bay and Llangennith. “We want to give opportunity to connect people with the wild & wonderful dunes up and down our coast. From beach art, to getting to know your wildlife – these special places are great for family adventures, wellbeing walks & wildlife spotting,” says David.
Last Wednesday, together, we wanted to create an event where people could just go outside and relax and explore nature. We thought this was very much needed after the fire-break lockdown and so organised a range of sessions throughout the day on Bay Campus, around three important topics: clean, create and learn/conserve.
1) CLEAN
With help from SWELL, who loaned us litter picks, we started the day with a beach clean! We managed to collect plenty of rubbish including, old beer cans, plastic bags, straws and washed up nappies from the shipping container accident that happened two weeks ago!
2) CREATE
Next we did a beach art session. With it being Remembrance Day and the tough year we’ve had to endure, we decided to send a message for everyone to see! We wrote HOPE in giant letters and had an amazing time creating artwork.
3) LEARN AND CONSERVE
Lastly, we explored the dunes near Crymlyn burrows, surveying for Sea Stock and recording their location. Thanks to David, we learned about invasive and rare species in the local area and the importance of dune ecosystems.
Sea stock: Wild Mushroom:
Our Future Goal
We want students to have the opportunity to spend more time outdoors, exploring our beautiful coastline whilst learning a thing or two about conservation. This project it’s all about appreciating nature and doing something good for the community and the environment.
Our society plans to work together with Dunescapes in the future to offer different events, ranging from beach art to dune conservation and species ID! We plan to do this at different locations around the coastline including Llangennith, Three Cliffs Bay and Oxwich with transportation paid for.
We would like to say a big thank you to David for providing equipment and co hosting this event!
If you have any fun or memorable experiences, Dunescapes would love to hear them! To share your stories visit:
www.dynamicdunescapes.co.uk/share-your-stories-images/
They want to help train the next generation of conservationists – you could become a part of something amazing! To sign up as a volunteer go to the Dynamic Dunescapes webpage or contact David:
Email: kilner@plantlife.org
Follow them on Facebook: Dynamic Dunes Wales
Instagram: Dynamicdunes
And Twitter: @dynamicdunes
To learn more about us or join our society for more events like this follow us on Facebook: Swansea University Conservation and Ecology Society
Instagram: Swansea_Conservation
Twitter: su_conservation
We have some exciting events planned for next term, and we can’t wait for you to join us!
