Our annual public meeting attracts strong support

WATER returned to the Ivybridge Watermark Centre this summer for our third annual public meeting. We were pleased to welcome a large number of people for whom this was their first time attending our annual event.

The evening was in three parts.

Following an overview of WATER by our Chair, Charlotte Grezo, team leaders from our various workstreams gave updates on our work and progress. Questions were held until part two when there was a half hour breakout session. People were invited to talk directly with our team leaders at Workstream Zones set up in adjacent breakout areas. These one-to-one discussions proved to be a popular format, allowing more people to be able to ask about their particular topic of interest.

Part three saw a return to the main hall where WATER provided a short preview of some of the filming that has already taken place by our volunteer film crew for a documentary on the Erme. The film not only traces the river from source to sea but highlights, and has interviews with, those in the Erme catchment (organisations, farmers, landowners, experimental enterprises and community groups) who are making positive contributions to restoring the Erme and its habitat to a more naturally healthy state.

Following our announcement earlier in the year that Osprey nesting platforms had been erected in the Erme, WATER welcomed guest speaker, Seb Loram from the Devon Osprey Partnership. Seb gave some remarkable insights into this fascinating bird which is starting to migrate along the south coast from releases further east, looking for suitable nesting sites in our estuaries. Hopefully the Erme will prove a suitable home.