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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Rain dodged ✅ Dolphins spotted 🐬 ✅ Eagles spotted 🦅 ✅ Seagrass spathes collected 🌱 ✅ What a week in Scotland with Mossy Earth @wilderfirths! 💙 We gathered vital seagrass material for future Tees restoration and started off the trip with a visit to @balancedhorizon to share ideas on spatting ponds 🌊💚

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

🌱⛈️ Seagrass: 1. Thunderstorms: 0. A perfectly timed seed collection at Lindisfarne means these tiny seeds are now heading through our Hartlepool nursery, ready to support future restoration in the Tees. Thanks to to our volunteers, NIFCA and Lindisfarne NNR.! 💚🌊

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

🌱 Early encouraging signs for Tees seagrass restoration! Six weeks after transplanting seagrass plants in the estuary, some plants are not only surviving but producing seed pods. 🌾💚 Huge thanks to all the volunteers and partners helping make this community effort possible! 🌊 #nationalmarineweek

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

A major milestone! Thanks to the team at @AVDawson, we've installed the first native oyster hoist nursery in the main River Tees. These mighty molluscs improve water quality and create refuge habitat. We'll monitor them monthly as we work towards creating an oyster reef in the estuary. 🦪💙

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

More photos from last week trialing core transplanting in Cumbria! We headed out on a second day to continue transplanting cores of seagrass and to monitor completed cores. Photos 3 and 4 show the cores looking healthy. These will soon start spreading to surrounding areas. #CumbriaWT #TeRT

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

As part of our work to grow seagrass in the Tees Estuary, we’ve been learning ‘core transplant’ techniques with Cumbria Wildlife Trust 🌱 This involves moving small areas of dense seagrass to nearby bare patches, helping it spread naturally over time. #seagrass #CWT #TeRT

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

🦪 We’re recruiting! Could you be our next Native Oyster Project Officer? Help deliver a pioneering oyster restoration programme 🌊 If you’re an enthusiastic team player with project experience and a passion for nature based solutions, we’d love to hear from you. 👉 Apply: www.teesriverstrust.org

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Huge thanks to Issy & Adam (Newcastle Uni) and Charlie (Exeter Uni) for all their hard work at our seagrass nursery 🌱 From planting our 2nd wave of seagrass seeds to prepping our oyster spatting pond, you’ve been superstars ⭐ Best of luck with your studies!

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Happy 2nd birthday to our Hartlepool Dock oyster nursery! 🎉 Thanks to amazing volunteers, we’ve tracked survival, growth & biodiversity. Over 80 species found so far, incl. a stunning peacock worm. Also another month of zero mortalities! 🦪 #GenerationRestoration #VolunteerPower #Hartlepool

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

🌊 A future home for oysters in the Tees Estuary. This low‑tide shoreline will host our oyster nursery, where we’ll test how native oysters survive and grow. What we learn will guide larger‑scale restoration. 🌱🦪 #nativeoyster #restorenature

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Our friends at Tees Valley Wildlife Trust are looking for volunteers this summer to help protect the little tern colony at Seaton Carew Beach.🐦🌊 Tasks include: • Watching fencing • Chatting to visitors • Deterring predators • Monitoring the birds For more info email Derek - dwood@teeswildlife.org

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

🌱 This #WorldSeagrassDay we'll be celebrating amazing growth from this year’s seagrass pasties 🌊✨ Planted in January → thriving today. Next stop: the Tees Estuary, where they’ll: 💧 Improve water quality 🐟 Create habitat for marine life Seagrass = ecosystem superhero. 💚 #Seagrass #Restoration

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

🌿 We’re Hiring! Help Restore the Tees Estuary 🌊 We’re looking for two passionate people to join our team and help bring back native estuarine species to the Tees Estuary. 💚 If you care about conservation and want to make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you. 👉 www.teesriverstrust.org/vacancies

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Seagrass alert!! We have welcomed our first baby seagrass of 2026, a tiny shoot measuring about 1cm tall. This photosynthesising trooper will hopefully be the first of many grown this year at our nursery. With luck, this plant shall be deployed into our estuary as part of our restoration efforts. 🌱

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The power of volunteers!🪡 Last week we had a lovely volunteer session with Elm Tree & Fairfield WI making hessian pillows for our estuary restoration project. These pillows will be filled with seagrass and eventually put into the estuary to reintroduce seagrass habitats. Thanks to the WI!🌱🌊🐚

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

🦪 We’re working on installing a nursery in the Tees to learn how they thrive & inform future restoration in the estuary. Each oyster filters 200L/day, builds reefs for marine life & boosts biodiversity. Nature is making a comeback! 🌊 #TeesRestoration

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

🌊 Exciting news! We’re working with Turner and Townsend early careers team to install a native oyster nursery in the Tees Estuary—boosting water quality & biodiversity. They will be aiding in project management and volunteer engagement. Stay tuned for updates! #Marineconservation #Oysters

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

🌊 Last week at Hartlepool’s Wintertide Festival we shared our love of marine life! ✨ With Blair from Stronger Shores, people tried making seaweed plastic, while kids-at-heart crafted collages of the sea. 💙 The creativity was inspiring and the final artworks will make you smile! #WintertideFestival

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

🔎SPOT THE SEALS🔎 The perks of mussel surveying is admiring the wildlife of the Tees..... At some point it was like a seal highway with them constantly coming down the estuary, bobbing up to get a catch a glance at us but quickly returning to the safety of the water.

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

As part of our Living Leven project we've been installing planted coir rolls along Holme Beck in Great Broughton to protect and enhance the local environment. Coir rolls are natural, biodegradable barriers which help stabilise banks & improve water quality by filtering sediment and pollutants.

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

🦪 Oyster Monitoring Update! Our amazing volunteers check our nurseries monthly—this time, we spotted a butterfish inside a dead oyster (still great habitat!) and a stunning juvenile wrasse 🐟 📸 Thanks Michael for the fishy photos! #nativeoyster #marineconservation #Hartlepool #ThankYouVolunteers

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Our team and volunteers have been cleaning seagrass and spotting tiny marine wonders! 🌱✨ Highlights: a frilly keel worm 'face', two sea slugs, and an amphipod’s compound eye, just like a fly’s. Which weird critter is your favourite? 🔍🦐 #Seagrass #OceanLife #MarineBiology

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Big shoutout to BAM Nuttall, Environment Agency & Turner & Townsend teams who joined us at the seagrass nursery this week 🌱 Their help clearing algae was a huge boost for our plants. Collaboration in action 💚 #teestidelands #teesriverstrust

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Can you spy the squid we spotted in Hartlepool Dock recently on this video? We’re used to finding all sorts of life in the dock, but we’ve never seen a squid, let alone one this big 🦑 it’s always great to see so much diversity in the dock, which our oysters are contributing to! 🦪

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

It's your last chance to take part in the #BigRiverWatch today! 🚨 While the weather is so lovely why not? It was great completing a survey near the Barrage this morning, and it is so quick and easy! It's a great opportunity to take part in citizen science, so let us know what you've seen below 🦆

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

We're working with Hull University to fit some with sonar trackers and follow their incredible journey 🌍✨ These eels are amazing—born thousands of miles away, somehow finding their way to our local waters, and then heading back across the ocean to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Eel-ectrifying news from a lake near the Skerne! 🐍🧑‍🔬 Today we had slippery success in our hunt for European eels - two were enormous! 👀 It was great chatting to people about these mysterious creatures and why they matter. Eel numbers have dropped greatly recently, but we’re working to turn the tide.

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Don’t forget the Big River Watch is taking place in just over a week! Get planning what stretch of river you’re going to visit now 🦆 @theriverstrust.bsky.social #bigriverwatch theriverstrust.org/take-action/...

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

🌼✨ Let’s play Spring Bingo! ✨🌼 The first day of spring has arrived, and the Tees catchment is starting to bloom! 🌸🌿 We’ve spotted crocuses, daffodils, cherry blossoms, wild garlic, and even some rams enjoying the fresh pastures. The River Tees is looking glorious too! 🌊 What have you seen?

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

With the arrival of spring, Himalayan balsam is starting to appear again🌱 We don’t have active work planned for this year but we’re planning for the future, including mapping key areas for future management, planning balsam bashing, and expanding biocontrol sites—taking our total from 13 to 38!

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

The Tees has always shaped the landscape and history of Barnard Castle. Overlooked by the 12th-century fortress, the river flows under County Bridge, which has spanned the Tees since 1569. Whether you explore history in Bowes Museum or enjoy the views, the River Tees is at the heart of this town 🏰🌊

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

It has definitely felt like spring is in the air recently, and flowers have been starting to appear! 🌸⛅️ Some of our most popular flowers are early spring flowers, like crocuses, snowdrops, daffodils and primroses all of which can be seen all over the North-East at the moment🌼which is your favourite?

Fifteen light purple crocuses in the sun

A field of snowdrops, five close up in the foreground and many more in the background

Three large daffodils against the backdrop of a brick wall

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

We also removed an elder tree to prevent it choking the hedge and to give other plants the chance to flourish 🌱 Thank you to everyone for their hard work - this kind of collaboration between volunteers, communities, farmers, and landowners helps protect our local landscapes 💪💚

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Our volunteers have been helping to restore and protect hedgerows – a vital habitat for birds, insects, and small mammals 🐦🐝🦔 Working with a local farmer, the team got stuck into hedge laying – an ancient craft that helps create dense, healthy hedgerows that will thrive for years to come.

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Seagrass growth update!🌾 It has now been growing in our indoor nursery for over a month, and it's growing really nicely 🌱 As ever, these delicate plants aren't growing perfectly and algae growing on them can limit their photosynthesis, but with attentive care, they should continue growing happily!

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

🌊 Join Our Team! Volunteer Coordinator Role🌿 📌 Salary: £27,000+ 📌 Application Deadline: 5pm Monday 10th March 2025 📢 Ready to apply? Please send a copy of your CV and a Cover Letter to Chloe Lawrence, Project Manager: chloe@teesriverstrust.org Find out more here: www.teesriverstrust.org/vacancies

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Otterly Exciting Discoveries! 🦦 We spotted otter prints! Otters are elusive and hard to see, but their footprints are a sign they’re around. Look for their webbed toes and distinctive shape along the riverbank. 🌊A healthy river means a thriving otter population and we’re excited to see signs of them

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

40 Years in the River! ♻️ This Twix wrapper was picked up from the riverbanks by Stephen Bell (📸 credit) with an expiry date in 1984! That means it has been sitting in the environment for over 40 years😳

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

🦌Spotting Signs of Deer When outdoors you might not see deer but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there! Footprints and droppings are common clues but another is bark stripping where deer gnaw at trees 🌳 These photos show there have been deer here. Look closely when you’re out to try spot these signs!

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Thank you everyone who helped with fish hotel construction!🐟🏨we built them by drilling holes in shells, stringing them together, constructing gabion cages and hanging the shells in the cages. Thanks to our volunteers we now have 10 fish refuges ready to provide shelter for marine life in the estuary

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

❄️ Snowdrops are starting to peek through, bringing brightness to chilly winter days. They are one of the first signs that spring is on the way! 🌿 Seeing them on the riverbanks is a reminder of the biodiversity we’re working to protect. 🌸 Have you spotted any snowdrops yet? Show us your photos

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

These seedlings will remain in our indoor nurseries for now so we can keep a close eye on them and provide them with constant light and warmth until they have grown bigger. Hopefully having so many seedlings so soon after planting is a sign of a productive seagrass year to come! 🌱

Three tiny seagrass seedlings growing underwater in a tub of sandy sediment close to the camera. There are many more seedlings in the background

Many tubs of sediment for growing seagrass in larger tubs full of water. They are on shelves, lit by bright lights in a container

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Exciting seagrass news alert! 🤩🌾 The seagrass circle of life has begun again with our first seedlings sprouting over the weekend 😍 this comes after we planted thousands of seeds in our indoor nursery only two weeks ago - you can see photos of the process below. #Nature #conservation #seagrass

Eight medium sized tray tubs lined up on a table. They all have sandy, muddy sediment in and some of them have holes poked in ready for seagrass seeds to be planted.

A close up of muddy sediment in a tray. It has holes in, some of which are covered up. One of the holes has a pipette over it which contains three seeds ready to be planted there.

A close up of three tiny, brown seagrass seeds in a hole in sandy sediment

Eleven seagrass seedlings growing in sandy sediment in a tray

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

If you live in the North East please consider filling out this survey! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Yesterday our amazing volunteers completed a day of access clearance after Storm Eowyn. 💪 Before & After: A fallen tree blocking a Teesdale Way footpath is now history, thanks to their hard work! This has improved access for walkers and anglers, making it easier to enjoy the beautiful River.

Five volunteers and a Tees Rivers Trust employee next to the tree they have removed

Before: a large tree next to the river which has fallen over, blocking a mud path in between the river and an arable field

After: the tree has been chopped up and removed. The path is clear and there is a pile of logs next to it

Three volunteers working with hand saws to chop up the fallen tree

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Other things found this month include a gorgeous ballan wrasse, plenty of prawns, a crab looking after hundreds of eggs, a squat lobster and a spider crab 🦀🦐🐟 After monitoring in 3.6C water we felt we and the volunteers had earned a hot chocolate! If you would like to join us please get in contact

Five common prawns of varying sizes, three mycid shrimps and a tiny shore crab in a white sampling tray, having been removed from an oyster nursery

A female shore crab being held by a member of staff. The crab has many hundreds of eggs it is protecting on its underside

A small squat lobster being held by a member of staff

Two deluxe hot chocolates with the cream and marshmallows and a pot of tea for volunteers and staff after a cold oyster monitoring session

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Our first oyster monitoring sessions of the year were cold but fascinating as ever! Some of our oysters in the marina are now growing on top of each other forming reef structures. Other species we ❤️ are also making homes on the oysters, like these mussels! #hartlepool #volunteer #Oysters #mussels

A native oyster being held by a volunteer showing outward growth and two other oysters growing on top of it

A native oyster held by a volunteer with 20 mussels growing on it!

A very small spider crab (about the size of a fingernail) being held in someone’s palm

A small spotty ballan wrasse in a measuring jug, having been removed from an oyster nursery

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Are you taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend?🐦 If you don't have a garden, or if one hour isn't enough for you remember you can also submit results from elsewhere, so why not do some birdwatching by the river? Please remember safety comes first in this weather!🦆🌬️ #BigGardenBirdWatch

Two Tees Rivers Trust employees birdwatching in the local area

A group of 11 mute swans on the River Tees

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Even on a day like Blue Monday, the first signs of spring remind us that change is on the horizon. 🌱 Bulbs pushing through by the river are a sign of what’s to come—slow, steady growth, and a shift towards brighter days. 🌸 #BlueMonday #SignsOfSpring #Growth #Nature #NewBeginnings #TeesRiversTrust

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Tees Rivers Trust @teesriverstrust.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

We’ve had a busy week planting seagrass to kick off the year! See how we plant these tiny seeds here and stay tuned for updates 🌱🐡 #seagrass #OceanConservation #strongershores #zostera #uknature

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