The Shingle Street community has implemented a number of practical initiatives over the last few years to help conserve and protect the local environment, as detailed elsewhere on this website. We have also been thinking about longer-term initiatives to enhance the environment in a more active and substantial way and have now acquired an adjacent field, which was poor-quality grazing land, and are planning to turn part of it into a wetland.
Shingle Marshes is already home to skylarks, snipe and brown hares, but we plan to restore some ancient lagoons and channels to create new habitats for visiting waders and wildfowl. We will encourage a spread of fringing reeds, for nesting warblers, small mammals like water voles and harvest mice, dragonflies and a range of aquatic invertebrates. In other sections we will be planting some hedging and sowing wildflower seed. The overall aim is to protect what is already there and to restore the biodiversity of local species we have sadly lost over the years.
To protect the flora and wildlife the conservation area will be fenced, as at present, but the whole field is readily viewable from the adjoining road and the sea wall at its southern end. There will be regular surveys to monitor the success of the venture and these, together with news of current sightings will be posted on this website.
We gratefully acknowledge our sponsors supporting this project:
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