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Shoreline updates

June 17, 2019  |  By Charlotte Johnson

Introducing Edinburgh Shoreline: The Wild Line

Ariel view of Edinburgh coast

We are delighted to announce that the Edinburgh Shoreline project has been awarded funding from Scottish Natural Heritage’s Biodiversity Challenge Fund to deliver habitat creation along the Edinburgh coast. This new part of our project will be called The Wild Line.

In total, 14 projects across Scotland have been awarded a share of £1.8 million over a two year period. All projects are taking practical steps to improve natural habitats, safeguard plant and animal species and improve biodiversity.

The Edinburgh Shoreline project will work alongside the University of Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh Council, University of Glasgow and Scottish Seabird Centre to create or improve large scale habitats for pollinators, rocky shore invertebrates and seabirds until September 2020.

For pollinators, the Wild Line will create 10 new wildflower meadows in the north of the city, particularly concentrating on areas where there are gaps between flower-rich habitats to create a pollinator ‘corridor’ for the coast (see pages 14-16 of the CEC Biodiversity Action Plan for the importance of green networks).

We will be installing man-made habitats to hard sea wall defences to create vital habitat for species such as barnacles and periwinkles, much like our initial experimental tiles that you may have seen in Cramond but on a larger scale. Concrete sea defences are particularly devoid of life and with so much of the Edinburgh coast protected by them it is important that this barrier is transformed from grey to green (see pages 38-41 from University of Glasgow here).

The Scottish Seabird Centre will be undertaking large scale removal of Invasive Non-Native Species such as Tree Mallow from the Forth Islands, which has a negative effect on the areas available for sea birds to nest (see SOS Puffin for info).

Collecting data will also be an important part of the Wild Line project, to enable us to monitor the impact of our work for these three species; pollinators, rocky shore invertebrates and sea birds. Throughout the course of the project we will have specialists, students and volunteers helping us to monitor the impact that we make.

As well as improving the coast for wildlife, we hope that the Wild Line will also make our coast a better place for people!

This is an exciting time for the project, and we are grateful for the support of Scottish Natural Heritage in making this new strand of the project possible. Although it sounds as though the Edinburgh Shoreline project will be busy delivering these on-the-ground works, never fear, our usual community engagement will continue! You might know us for supporting community groups to improve their local greenspaces and hosting events such as walks, talks and bioblitzes: all of this work will still continue. So keep an eye on our social media feeds and events page of the website for more opportunities to get involved.

Article by Charlotte Johnson

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Regular updates from the Edinburgh Shoreline project and 6 community groups. We welcome guest postings, so if you’d like to contribute please contact us.

Posts

  • Square 16 Monday, 22, Feb
  • 2
    Seafield prom grass is looking untidy – that might actually be a good thing! Sunday, 8, Dec
  • The view out to the Bass Rock
    A visit to the Scottish Seabird Centre Tuesday, 19, Nov
  • A rock covered in the yellow coloured leafy lichen xanthoria parietina. This is a common lichen that you can even spot in the city centre.
    Likin’ lichens Tuesday, 5, Nov
  • Introducing Emily, Volunteer Coordinator at the Scottish Seabird Centre Thursday, 31, Oct

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Edinburgh Shoreline is an exciting, new, community centred initiative celebrating the city’s 27km coastline.

We are rediscovering its fascinating and often unknown history and the rich plant and animal life that survives against the odds in unexpected places, and inspiring people to explore their coast and take responsibility for its future health.

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