05th September 2008

Plans for Britain’s biggest coastal wetland restoration are set to take a step forward this autumn.

The Wallasea Island 'Wild Coast Project' will see three-quarters of this island in south Essex restored by the RSPB to saltmarsh, creeks and mudflats, building a haven for wildlife and a wonderful place for people to connect with the Essex coastal landscape.

The RSPB has just given its developing ideas for the project to Essex County Council in a new 'Scoping Study'. This sets out the scope of the Society’s plans, giving the County Council and other regulators, including Rochford District Council, the Environment Agency and Natural England, the chance to raise points and check the project meets their needs.

For the RSPB, this gives a welcome opportunity to develop the detail of the scheme and confirm that it follows best practice, before submitting a planning application later this year.

RSPB Wallasea Island project manager Mark Dixon said: "At a time when the east coast is under siege from rising sea levels and our wildlife is on the move in response to climate change, it's great that we have a once in a generation opportunity actually to put some of our coastline back on a really big scale."

Key points of the proposal include:

  • A landscape-scale wetland restoration, including managed realignment of the sea walls
  • Intensive studies to confirm no adverse impacts elsewhere on the Crouch and Roach estuaries
  • Proposals to raise land levels ahead of wetland creation by bringing in high quality, pollution-free material by ship. Sources for this are under investigation.

The RSPB hopes to start the wetland creation project within three years, with completion at least 10 years away, the timescale reflecting the size and complexity of the project and the extensive consultations needed.

More information or to make a donation towards the Wallasea Wild Coast project: "www.rspb.org.uk/wallasea

Notes for editors

  • The RSPB scheme is called the Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project. It will lead to the creation of new wildlife habitats including 133 hectares of mudflats, 202 hectares of saltmarsh, 44 hectares of shallow saline lagoons and 72 hectares of coastal grazing marsh.
  • About eight miles of coastal walks and cycle routes will also be created as part of the project.
  • Wallasea is close to Ashingdon, where, in the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016, King Canute’s Viking armies defeated the English king, Edmund Ironside. Remains of trenches in the nearby parish of Canewdon are thought to indicate the site of Canute’s pre-battle camp.
  • What birds can be expected? The knot, Calidris canutus, a wading bird which will use Wallasea, has a Latin name after King Canute. Other returning species will include avocet, dunlin, redshank and lapwing. In winter, Wallasea will attract large flocks of brent geese, wigeon and curlew. Saltmarshes and other inter-tidal estuary land currently supports two million wildfowl and wading birds in the UK in winter. The new reserve could lure several new species to Essex, including spoonbills, Kentish plovers (absent from the UK for 50 years), and black-winged stilts, which have only bred in Britain three time.
  • Saltwater fish including bass, herring and flounder are likely use the wetland as a nursery. Plants such as samphire, sea lavender and sea aster are expected to thrive.
  • Saltmarsh is the zone between land and saltwater. Its range of species can rival the diversity of rainforests because daily tidal surges bring in nutrients and because of the mixture of creeks, exposed mud and specialist plants.
  • Because of development and sea level rise, saltmarshes and mudflats are disappearing at a rate of 100 hectares each year. The government has set a combined target for the recreation of saltmarshes and mudflats, of 3,600 hectares (8,895 acres) by 2015.
  • One cubic metre of mud contains enough worms and insects to match the calorie content of 16 Mars Bars. Mud and plants absorb pesticides and other pollutants.
  • Most of Wallasea is farmland. There are few houses on the island and even fewer roads.