Aim

To raise awareness of the challenges facing Exe salmon, an indicator species for the environment at large with a 50 mile community relay run

Hi Everyone

We are Jo and Anne-Marie co-ordinators of Tidelines, a small community led CIC (Community Interest Company) focused on the Exe estuary and coast.

Salmon Run is a community relay event, 5km fun run and Ultra run highlighting the epic migratory journey of the Atlantic Salmon and exploring what it can teach us about the health of the river Exe and climate change. It’s a classic Tidelines project which involves people in the salmon story through science, arts, celebration and physical activity. It’s a lot of fun for people of different ages and abilities while exploring serious environmental issues particularly in light of the climate and nature crisis and to inspire informed climate action.

Salmon Run ran as a pilot last year working with Wild Running, experts in trail running, and proved so successful that we’d like to make it an annual event. To do this we need to cover our running costs for this year. This is where you come in! We are excited that Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund have agreed to match your donations by 2:1, tripling anything you are able to give.

Our river, the Exe or Isca means ‘river of fish’ we want our river to be full of life! Join us in celebrating, empathising with and working to save this remarkable and iconic species!

On 24 September, 2023, World Rivers Day, we invite people from all walks of life and running abilities to take part in one of 3 runs taking place on the same day. Options: serious challenges in the ultra 50 mile, moderate team relays of approx 10 km or shared community fun in the 5km run through Exeter. A podcast and information stalls in key locations on the day bring people together with experts and enthusiasts to learn about this remarkable but endangered species, its journey and its ecological and cultural significance for our river. Weirs, the changing climate, loss of species diversity and pollution all have their impact on these iconic fish with a sharp decline since the 1980s on the Exe and worldwide.

Our costs to run the day include personnel (medics, master of ceremonies, photographer, run director), sustenance for runners as they go, important publicity and printing, transport, social media management and marketing, insurance and permissions and run infrastructure including signage, numbered running bibs, gazebos and flags.

Tidelines is a successful community-led project which explores issues raised by the community that concern our local Exe estuary and river catchment. We bring people all around the catchment together with scientists, researchers and artists to celebrate and care for our beautiful local river and estuary, to learn more about it and to focus on the its challenges as it changes through human induced climate change. We work with many other organisations to bring people into dynamic relationship with the place we live, raising understanding of the river system and its challenges and signposting onward opportunities for action, citizen science and restoration.

Please keep an eye on our social media @exetidelines (Fbk and Insta) and exetidelines1 (twitter). More info at https://tidelines.uk/

And thanks so much in advance for your support!

This project successfully funded on 6th September 2023