The National Trust in Formby have been busy installing dipwells across the site

Rangers and Volunteers have been busy installing dipwells across our site.

Dipwells are used to monitor fluctuations in the water table. To create a dipwell a hole is bored into the dunes by a hand auger until we have approximately 30 cm of water at the bottom of our hole, one of dipwells reached 7m before we found water!

We then put a perforated plastic pipe in to the hole, this allows the water in but not the sand. Once our dipwells are in place we can use a dipmeter to lower into the pipe and let us know the water level.

Monitoring the depth of the water table and fluctuations across the dunes allow us rangers to decide the optimal locations to create dune slacks (seasonal ponds) in the dunes.

These dunes provide the perfect place for our Natterjack toads to breed!