CLM20-2 full issue-1 - Flipbook - Page 6
Saltmarsh restoration through flash re-creation
A pre-restoration flash after a high tide – the foot-drain, with pooled water, is clearly visible. Bart Donato
once nested per square kilometre on some Solway
marshes and cites 40 redshank nests being found
in a day by Tom Johnston, alongside the likes
of oystercatcher, dunlin, snipe and even blacktailed godwit (Ratcliffe 2002). This community
of breeding waders can still be encountered on
coastal marshes in continental Europe, particularly
around the Baltic, but is absent from the UK.
While recovery of these riches is probably
unobtainable, knowledge of them sets a target to
which we can aspire.
Surface water
The natural development of a saltmarsh sees the
establishment of a creek network that eventually
becomes the main pathway for sediment to reach
the surface of the marsh. As
sediment-laden waters escape
the creeks during overfilling
high tides, vegetation slows the
flow and sediment is dropped
close to the creek edge. The
result of this is a structure
of creeks flanked by banks
of higher-elevation marsh,
effectively forming levees,
with the space between the
creeks developing as shallow
depressions which hold water
after a topping tide or heavy
rainfall. The pools, or flashes,
formed in these low points
are not permanent and their
persistence is determined
by the time between being
Pre-restoration foot-drains on an area of relatively dry marsh.
filled by topping tides and
Bart Donato
4 Conservation Land Management Summer 2022 | Vol. 20 No. 2
