A new event, which aims to grow into south of Scotland’s main annual environmental festival, is giving people the chance to discover and help protect the area’s wonderful waterways, landscapes and wildlife.
ImMerse is taking place on September 22 at Annan Harbour and in the surrounding merse and river. Starting at 10am, it will be a fun-filled opportunity to learn about and celebrate the amazing saltmarshes – and wider natural environment – across the south of Scotland, focusing particularly on the Solway, with nature, wildlife, citizen science and arts and crafts activities.
Visitors can join the Saltmarsh School to learn all about the wildlife and environment of the merse. They can take part in guided walks and talks, nature craft water quality testing, invertebrate investigations and saltmarsh science. There will also be discussions and films.
Jan Hogarth of SCAMP (Solway Coastal and Marine Project) which is helping organise the event, said: “The merse is a magical, dynamic place full of wildlife that’s constantly reshaped by ebb and flow of the tides. It provides nature-based solutions to challenges including carbon sequestration, flooding and biodiversity loss.
“But it’s under threat due to climate change. This festival is a great way to celebrate the merse and also to put a focus on the amazing waterways, landscapes and wildlife of all southern Scotland.
“It’s an event we’d love to see grow and develop to become the region’s main environmental festival.
“The Solway contains a quarter of the UK’s saltmarshes. ImMerse is a chance to discover more about the saltmarshes, that have done so much to shape the Solway coast, and about the river Annan and its harbour.
Jan, who is also an environmental artist, will take an active part in the festival leading Saltmarsh Sketching event where she will help people capture the beauties of this remarkable watery landscape.
The event will be a chance to be part of World Rivers Day and Earthwatch Europe's Great UK WaterBlitz - two major national and international initiatives highlighting the importance of, and threats to, our natural waterways.
There will be opportunities to help with water testing in the Annan and for sampling the merse to look at the numbers of invertebrates, which are the base of the food chain and critical to all life on the saltmarshes.
Jenna Cains, Community and Education Lead Officer of the D&G Climate Hub, another of the organising groups, will lead the water testing.
She said: “The ImMerse festival is a unique event that focusses on the somewhat overlooked habitat of merse, which is a dynamic and intricate landscape that supports specialist species, protects our Solway coastline and locks away carbon – making it crucial for the future of our communities and our precious wildlife.”
The festival’s learning activities will include:
• Saltmarsh Science with a freelance ranger and saltmarsh expert
• Up the Creek, walks with Galloway Fisheries Trust
• Wood etching with D&G Woodlands
• Moth ID with SWSEIC (South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre)
• Birds on the Solway with RSPB
• South of Scotland's Golden Eagle Project
• Learn about Wild Woods from Borders Forest Trust
• Get into Soil with Propagate
• Woodcraft with Southern Upland Way ranger
The festival hub will be a marquee at the harbour where the festival is working in partnership with Annan Harbour Action Group, D and G Climate Hub and SCAMP.
There will also be a showing In Nature, a film created by young filmmakers from Annan and Why Not Scotland? an inspiring movie about nature restoration.
The festival coincides with world Rivers Day, The Great UK Water blitz, the Global Goals and the Scottish Government’s Climate week.
