‘Our Picturesque Landscape’ is a National Lottery Heritage Funded Project that has been working in the landscape of the Dee Valley and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site since 2018. Over the six years the project has delivered 28 school projects, and engaged over 2,400 pupils with the heritage and environment of this very special place.

As part of the legacy of the project, the Our Picturesque Landscape team have developed an exciting new suite of digital education resources which are free for schools to request from the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape.

The new educational resources have been developed by working alongside artists, writers and historians, as well as teachers and pupils from the school sessions delivered by the project team over the years. The resources are most suitable for Key Stage 2 learners, and are linked to the Curriculum for Wales framework. They will enable young people to discover the heritage of the landscape and stories of the influential characters and events which have shaped the area over the last 400 years. Supporting teachers to confidently lead outdoor learning sessions and opportunities to discover the Dee Valley in a plethora of ways including through the medium of dance, art, creative writing, natural history, science and physical education. There are exciting films, virtual reality, a board game to learn about an underappreciated habitat that is rarer than rainforest, and a new Top Trumps game to discover the people that have shaped the area in the past and present.

Any educators or school staff interested in the resources can email our.picturesque.landscape@denbighshire.gov.uk to request digital copies.

Sallyanne Hall, Our Picturesque Landscape Community Engagement Officer, said: “Although the end of the Our Picturesque Landscape project in November will mean that the team are no longer available to go into schools and lead activities we hope that these exciting new resources will support teachers to deliver high quality outdoor learning opportunities themselves and enable pupils to continue to discover the fascinating stories of the Dee Valley in the future”.

Councillor Alan James, the Council's Cabinet Lead Member for Local Development and Planning, said: “These resources are fantastic for helping pupils learn about the rich history that the Dee Valley has to offer and for keeping the stories of the area alive for generations to come.”

Ruthin sports venues are leading the way in tackling the impact of nighttime light pollution.

The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape team has been working with Clwb Rygbi Rhuthun and Llanfwrog Community Centre to introduce more sustainable and ecologically friendly lighting on their pitches, tennis courts and golf driving range to reduce light pollution and improve the facilities for users and nature. The pioneering new lights installed at the tennis centre, the Rugby Club and the Golf Driving range are the first in Wales to be fully dark sky and ecologically friendly and lead the way in demonstrating best practice.

As part of a wider programme of work supported by Welsh Government, Designated Landscapes across Wales are working together as Tirweddau Cymru to help unlock the potential of these landscape to deliver for nature, climate and for communities. This has included a collaborative project led by staff from Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape to promote the importance of dark skies for nature and for people.

The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape team worked with all of the Sports Grounds and clubs in this part of Ruthin including the Rugby Club, the Tennis Club and Golf Driving Range to come up with solutions that can deliver effective sports lighting that meet professional playing standards in an ecologically friendly way.

The new lights include cowls that cut off any stray light spilling into unnecessary areas and to direct all light onto the pitches, with no light spill beyond the playing area. This not only means less ecological impact but also that no light is wasted.

In this way the Rugby Club can light their pitches more effectively with a 45 percent reduction in the energy consumption, producing a significant financial saving for the club.

The Tennis Club have seen a 61 percent reduction in energy consumption with courts that are much better lit and better to play on.

A light management System has been included to make the new lights fully controllable from a phone app so that only the courts or pitches that are being used need to be lit. This can be dimmed when being used for training rather than matches leading to further energy savings.

Critically the new LED lights are a slightly warmer colour temperature, 2700 kelvin, which is much less harmful to wildlife than the standard bluer / white LED lights.

Uncontrolled external lighting can have a hugely negative impact on nocturnal wildlife as well as human physical and mental health. Around 60 percent of biodiversity depends upon darkness to survive so light pollution can be hugely damaging. As part of the project the National Landscape are monitoring moth and other invertebrate densities in the area.

Gwenno Jones, Dark Sky officer for the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley said: “It’s not been easy to come up with a solution but working with specialist dark sky lighting consultancy Dark Source and lighting company EcoClub we’ve managed to demonstrate that it’s possible to provide better quality, more effective lighting that is also more ecologically, environmentally and economically sustainable.”

Cllr Alan James, Lead Member for Local Development and Planning said: “The new lighting across all these sports grounds will see a huge improvement for residents in this part of Ruthin with very little or no obtrusive light now spilling into the surround area or landscape. Its best practice for so many reasons and we hope that this standard of lighting can be replicated across Wales.“

These sports grounds were a large source of obtrusive light contributing to light pollution affecting local residents and which could be seen for miles.

The new lighting schemes have been supported by the Sustainable Landscapes Sustainable Places funding programme, administered by Welsh Government and Tirweddau Cymru Landscapes Wales and have received funding from Brenig and Clocaenog wind Farm, Sport Wales and Denbighshire Leisure.