A marshland nature reserve built with more than three million tonnes of soil from the Crossrail scheme could be expanded.
Plans have been made to grow RSPB Wallasea Island, a 740-hectare reserve at Rochford in Essex, by 100 hectares – about the size of 140 football pitches.
After the purchase of four fields to the west of the site, RSPB conservationists said they planned to create a six-hectare lagoon in the easternmost of the four fields, the BBC reported.
The other three fields were set be developed into a mixed scrub or grassland mosaic with additional wet areas.
Wallasea Island, Essex. Photo, RSPB
Like much of Essex’s coastline, the land at Wallasea Island would’ve once been a mosaic of grassland, mudflats and marshes. However, it was drained for agricultural use in the 1950s.
The increasing sea levels over recent years put the future of the farmland at Wallasea Island at risk and so the RSPB acquired the land in the mid-2000s, aiming to transform the landscape into invaluable intertidal habitat.
A total of 3.2 million tonnes of soil, which had been dug out from the creation of the Elizabeth line, were donated by Crossrail. This was used to raise the land above sea level and to create a new area of marsh and mudflats, known as Jubilee Marsh, to provide feeding opportunities for wading birds.
It was brought to Wallasea by ship and used to raise land levels as well as create salt marsh, islands and mudflats at the Crouch and Roach estuaries.
The RSPB hoped an expansion could provide further habitat to rare and threatened wildlife such as lapwings, redshanks and avocets. It added the new lagoon would also provide the reserve’s first body of freshwater.
Site manager at Wallasea Island, Rachel Fancy, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Ida Davis Family Foundation for giving us the money to buy the land adjacent to the reserve.
“This is an exciting project which will allow us to create vital new habitats, adding to the mix of wildlife already present on the reserve.”
Photo: Peter Slaughter
The island was originally developed on land owned by Wallasea Farms, who also owned the newly purchased fields.
The farm owners wanted to sell the land due to the effects of climate change on coastal areas, with the low seawall on the south of the island making the land susceptible to sea level rise.
Ken Davis, of the Ida Davis Family Foundation, said: “Our funding will help create a freshwater lagoon on the peninsula, which will lead to an increase in visiting waders and allow more visitors to connect with nature.
“My mother, after whom our foundation is named, was a local Leigh on Sea resident and a nature lover, and she would very much have appreciated and enjoyed this commitment to our local wildlife.”