Projects
Coastal & Floodplain Grazing Marsh Project
Coastal and Floodplain Grazing Marsh is identified as a nationally important priority habitat in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. This habitat is important for breeding and migrant waders such as snipe, lapwing and curlew, and internationally important for wintering wildfowl including swans. They also provide important functions in terms of buffering flood events and reducing the energy of advancing tides, and therefore support our flood and coastal defence systems.
The Taw-Torridge Estuary now forms part of the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in North Devon and the aims of managing this international accolade include: to maintain the existing quality of this habitat and to address the problems of habitat loss arising from the encroaching sea.
The Coastal and Floodplain Grazing Marsh Project has been set up to address some coastal issues around the Taw-Torridge Estuary, such as habitat destruction and flood issues as a result of sea level rise. This is a partnership project between the Northern Devon Coast and Countryside Service, the Environment Agency, English Nature and the Tarka Country Trust, who employed a project officer in August 2004 to work with landowners for the mutual benefit of conservation and management.
There are a number of sites that are of interest around the estuary such as Northam Burrows, where a Coastal Grassland Restoration Project was completed in July 2005, allowing the area to enhance naturally as a coastal sea defence. This particular project was funded through the Coastal and Floodplain Grazing Marsh Project and the Northam Burrows Country Park. In addition, in July 2005 working with the Ministry of Defence at RMB Chivenor, a small area of wetland creation will enhance the habitat and provide an improved feeding area for a resident Barn Owl.
Further Projects will be developed with landowners to ensure that the quality and quantity of these habitats will survive and continue to work for the benefit of all.
Tom Hynes, NDCCS. Email: tom.hynes@devon.gov.uk or phone: 01237 423655
- Please also see the Saltmarsh Creation page
