Dredged mud could restore UK saltmarshes

DREDGED mud from a harbour on the south coast is being used to restore surrounding saltmarsh, in an innovative scheme to protect the local economy and wildlife.

- EMILY BEAMENT

The team behind the scheme to restore the eroding saltmarsh that protects Lymington Harbour, Hampshire, hope the “remarkable” recovery of natural habitat could be replicated around the country to conserve coastal areas at risk from rising sea levels.

Lymington has a ferry link to the Isle of Wight, 1,600 leisure moorings and sees 20,000 visiting yachts a year, with the harbour worth tens of millions of pounds a year to the local economy.

But its precious saltmarsh is eroding at a rate of two or three metres a year in the face of rising seas and increased storminess driven by climate change, which risks leaving the harbour exposed and unviable.

Building rocky breakwaters and dumping dredged mud in front of the saltmarsh have been used in recent years to slow the erosion.

But now a partnership led by Lymington Harbour Commissioners and Land & Water Group is trialling new methods to try to place dredged sediment at a height that will allow plants to recolonise and restore the habitat. The scheme is backed by the Crown Estate, which owns the majority of the foreshore, seabed and tidal riverbed at Lymington Harbour, including the saltmarsh being restored.

Ryan Willegers, chief executive of Lymington Harbour Commissioners, said that the harbour had started seeing a decline in the saltmarsh since around 1920, like many other areas around the UK, and it had been eroding ever since.