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In Essex we have already lost over 60% of our coastal marshes. Essex Wildlife Trust needs your help to buy Abbotts Hall Farm and restore some of these marshes. Abbotts Hall Farm is a 700-acre farm on the Salcott Channel of the Blackwater Estuary, seven miles south of Colchester. It is mainly arable with a small amount of salt marsh.
About 300 acres of the land will become coastal marshes through the ambitious plan to realign over 2.5km of sea wall. Over 350 acres will continue as an arable farm on which Essex Wildlife Trust will reinstate hedgerows, ditches, ponds, copses and grass strips to show how wildlife can be brought back to an arable farm.
Essex Wildlife Trust is spearheading this flagship acquisition with the support of a legacy from the late Joan Elliot, crucial grants from WWF-UK, Heritage Lottery Fund and English Nature, and with the expertise of the Wildlife Trusts and Environment Agency. It will be one of the biggest coastal conservation projects in the UK. But we urgently need your donation to help raise the last £60,OOO towards the purchase of Abbotts Hall Farm. Why are we losing coastal marshes so rapidly in Essex? Sea levels are rising and these coastal marshes cannot survive under deeper water. The marshes are being drowned - squeezed out of existence against the sea walls. As they disappear so do the unique salt marsh plants and the myriad of invertebrates which support the coastal fish and birds. We must find ways to restore these marshes and put life back into the Essex coast.
A more sustainable view of the coastline. Coastal marshes are not only good for birds - they are at important first line of coastal defence because they break the force of the waves. As the marshes disappear in front of the sea wall, the wall itself is very much more expensive to maintain. Obviously we must maintain good sea walls where people are at risk, but our society cannot afford to increase sea walls along the whole of the Essex coast.
At Abbotts Hall there is arable land behind the sea wall. We aim to show that new coastal marshes can be retreated on this land with tremendous benefit to wildlife. This will involve breaching the sea wall after a two-year period of careful planning and monitoring.
Please be part of this project and send us your donation today.
Short-eared Owl / Curlew / Black-tailed Godwit
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