Marshes make coastal comeback

A pioneering project to restore Britain's salt marshes, which are under threat due to the effects of global warming, represents a victory for environmental groups.

A pioneering project to restore Britain's salt marshes, which are under threat due to the effects of global warming, represents a victory for environmental groups.

Sea defences erected to protect farmland on a mile-long stretch of coastline in the Wash, East Anglia, have been dismantled to return 200 acres to salt marsh.

The project is expected to see the return of thousands of wading birds and the re-emergence of salt-water plants in the Freiston Shore nature reserve in Lincolnshire within six years.

The reserve, run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, will be visited on Friday by the Environment minister, Elliott Morley, as part of a nationwide initiative to restore salt marshes.

To combat rising sea levels and natural sinkage in south- east England, flood defences to protect homes and farmland are on the increase.

But they have trapped seawater, leading to the flooding of inter-tidal zones – a vital habitat to wading birds, such as redshanks and avocets, which feed on invertebrates. It is estimated that salt marshes in Britain are disappearing at a rate of two square miles every five years.

Environmentalists have now successfully campaigned for the "managed retreat" of flood defences to help restore the marshes.

At Freiston, a sea wall completed in 1982 has been taken down on the orders of English Nature and will be replaced at a cost of £5m by a defence further inland.

Similar projects are planned in Essex, Humberside and other sites in East Anglia.

Dr Ian Patterson, English Nature's regional policy officer, said: "This is an enormously exciting stage of the Britain's biggest-ever salt marsh creation project. If all goes well, we should see the new salt marsh established during the next six years."

Record tides

Weather forecasters yesterday played down the threat of coastal flooding early this week, when some of the highest tides ever are likely to hit Britain's coasts.

Tides will be up to 30 per cent higher than normal due to the alignment of the earth, the moon and the sun.

But the Meteorological Office is expecting light winds and high pressure, which can flatten the tide. As a standard precaution, the Environment Agency has issued its lowest-level flood alert at various points around the coast and for some tidal rivers.

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