This Earthcache is about two local rivers and the surrounding salt marshes. It is placed at the Tarra Carr Gutter which is a small tributary on Longton Marsh. Longton Marshes are a large area of marshland to the west of Longton lying at the confluence of the Rivers Douglas and Ribble which is now part of the Ribble Link. It is the natural home for a large variety of visiting and indigenous wildfowl. The 70 mile Ribble Way footpath starts at the Dolphin Inn on the edge of the marsh and follows its edge before joining the Ribble.
To complete and log this cache please email me with the answers to the questions, which can be answered by reading the cache page and by visiting the site at GZ. We also ask for you to post a picture of yourself at Tarra Carr Gutter and attach this to your log.
Rivers and Streams
Rivers and Streams can be found everywhere—they get their starts at headwaters, which may be springs, snowmelt or even lakes, and then travel all the way to their mouths, usually another water channel or the ocean. The characteristics of a river or stream change during the journey from the source to the mouth. The temperature is cooler at the source than it is at the mouth. The water is also clearer, has higher oxygen levels, and freshwater fish such as trout and heterotrophs can be found there. Towards the middle part of the stream/river, the width increases, as does species diversity—numerous aquatic green plants and algae can be found. Toward the mouth of the river/stream, the water becomes murky from all the sediments that it has picked up upstream, decreasing the amount of light that can penetrate through the water. Since there is less light, there is less diversity of flora, and because of the lower oxygen levels, fish that require less oxygen, such as catfish and carp, can be found.
The River Douglas, also known as the River Asland or Astland, is a river that flows through Lancashire and Greater Manchester in the North-West of England. It is a tributary of the River Ribble and has itself two main tributaries, the River Tawd and the River Yarrow. It also has several smaller tributaries one of which is the title of this cache. The river rises on Winter Hill on the West Pennine Moors, and flows for 35 miles through several towns and onto the Ribble estuary past Tarleton, the last 10 miles or so being tidal.
The River Ribble is a river that runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. The Ribble begins at the confluence of the Gayle Beck and Cam Beck near the famous viaduct at Ribblehead, in the shadow of the Yorkshire three peaks. It is the only river rising in Yorkshire which flows westward. It flows through Settle, Clitheroe, Ribchester and Preston, before emptying into the Irish Sea between Lytham St. Annes and Southport, a length of 75 miles. Its main tributaries are the Hodder and Calder which join the river near Great Mitton, the River Darwen which joins at Walton-le-Dale and the River Douglas which joins near Hesketh Bank.
Salt Marshes
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in by the tides. They are marshy because the soil may be composed of deep mud and peat, and are also known as mudflats and tidal flats. They are also dominated by dense strands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh in trapping and binding sediments. Salt marshes occur worldwide, particularly in middle to high latitudes. Thriving along protected shorelines, they are a common habitat in estuaries. Salt marshes also protect shorelines from erosion by buffering wave action and trapping sediments. They reduce flooding by slowing and absorbing rainwater and protect water quality by filtering runoff, and by metabolizing excess nutrients.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Salt_pannes_and_pools_high_and_low_tide.gif
A tributary is a freshwater stream that feeds into a larger stream, river or other body of water. The larger, or parent, river is called the mainstem. Tributaries do not flow directly into the ocean. Most large rivers get their water from a number of smaller tributaries. Each tributary carries runoff from a different area. These tributaries can also be called headwaters. The point where a tributary meets the parent river is called the confluence.
A confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water. Also known as a conflux, it refers either to the point where a tributary joins a larger river, called the main stem, or where two streams meet to become the source of a river of a new name, such as the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania creating the Ohio River.
An estuary is a body of water formed where freshwater from rivers and streams flows into the ocean, mixing with the seawater. Estuaries and the lands surrounding them are places of transition from land to sea, and from freshwater to saltwater. Although influenced by the tides, estuaries are protected from the full force of ocean waves, winds, and storms by the reefs, barrier islands, or fingers of land, mud, or sand that surround them.
Question 1:
What is Tarra Carr Gutter?
A) An Estuary
B) A Tributary
C) A Confluence
Question 2:
How wide is Tarra Carr Gutter? (If the tide is in this will be quite difficult to measure and we will accept a bridge measurement instead, please notify us in your answer if have had to do this.)
3: Fill in the blanks...
Tarra Carr Gutter flows into the River _______. It has _____ floodgates which allows ________ from the surrounding land to drain into the river. The salt marshes can be seen at ____ tide and are made up of trapped __________ left by the tide over many years, providing a natural _________ for many different species.
Ribble. One. Sediment. Grazing. High. Debris. Low. Habitat. Runoff. Two. Douglas. Flats. Mud.
This cache can be turned into a nice long walk and you could also grab the Linedancers caches whilst there, the R.A.T Series (7 caches in total) http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC26P8A and Rib-Ribble Way The Beginning http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC2NDYJ placed by the hedgehogteam.
Happy Caching!! 
Congrats TMD for the FTF and the great photo 