Restoring Wallasea's Wild Coast
The RSPB has transformed Wallasea Island in Essex into a magical landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea, and Martha Kearney visits to see the birds that now flock there.
Martha Kearney visits Wallasea Island in Essex, the largest manmade coastal nature reserve in Europe. It was created from the 3 million tonnes of London clay that were excavated in the digging out of the Elizabeth Line.
The RSPB project used soil from the Crossrail scheme to raise the land, and flood almost 170 hectares of arable land to create saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons. This was to mitigate for land loss as sea levels rise and it鈥檚 the only place that has raised land in order to bring the sea back. It鈥檚 the largest complex of saline lagoons in the UK.
The project tells an unusually positive story about adapting to climate change and coastal erosion before it happens, for the benefit of nature. Martha goes to see the waders and waterbirds that now over-winter there.
Producer: Beth O'Dea
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Featured
-
.
Broadcasts
- Thursday 15:00麻豆社 Radio 4
- Saturday 06:07麻豆社 Radio 4
Podcast
-
Open Country
Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of Britain