Essex farm flooded with seawater helped double saltmarsh across Thames estuary

A 3.5km stretch of sea wall along the Essex coast was deliberately breached in five places in October 2002. This allowed tides to rush into 283 hectares of farmland at Abbotts Hall Farm in Great Wigborough. The planned flooding changed an intensively farmed arable site into a thriving coastal wetland. In the years that followed, it doubled the area of saltmarsh across the Greater Thames estuary. The major project, led by Essex Wildlife Trust with strong support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the World Wide Fund for Nature, became a leading example of coastal realignment in the United Kingdom. Decades after the first breach, the site still shows how controlled seawater can create important wildlife habitats while providing a cost-effective way to defend the coast against rising sea levels.Restoring saltmarsh to defend coastal landSaltmarshes are important natural defences against coastal erosion.