Can you dig it?
Well if you can’t, I have good news for you because we can. A bit like Bob the Builder, we can also fix it too, but that’s another story. A great deal of digging has been going on recently and the reason behind it is very, very exciting. Let me expand a little, which means going back a few weeks.
My esteemed colleague, Fraser Rush, has been noticeable by his absence from the office over the last few weeks. Not that I am one to talk – spotting me sitting at my desk in Knowle is as rare as seeing a white-phase gyrfalcon cruising over Exmouth pavilion, but I digress. Fraser has, as I said, not been about very much recently and to be honest I was getting increasingly intrigued as to what was filling up so much of his time. I knew that it was broadly to do with developments on the Axe Wetlands, but until today I had no idea just what we as a team were undertaking. I have to say it’s fabulous – truly wonderful.
Now, I don’t want to spoil the story here, as we are planning the full bells-and-whistles press launch in due course when the time is right. But if I can’t give you, my weekly column readers, a sneak preview of this new project, what is the point of my tapping away at the keyboard every week? Exactly.
So here we go, behind the scenes for the first glimpse of the new wetlands. Be careful as the paint is not yet dry, in fact the paint has yet to be applied, and there’s random holes everywhere, so watch your step. But use your imagination and try and picture the following scene in a few months time, full of water and full of birds.
Black Hole Marsh, just to the south of our current Local Nature Reserve, Colyford Common, is the site for all the commotion. It’s the next phase in East Devon District Council’s plans for the wetlands west of the river. A wonderfully evocative name for a wonderful place; a few weeks ago this was a slightly moist field with some interesting hedgerows, a few clumps of soft rush, and not much else.
However, armed only with two large caterpillar-tracked swingshovels, numerous trucks and trailers, several tons of concrete, complex laser-guided LIDAR data and a huge tractor called Bertha, Fraser and Co. have dug, scraped, piled and set the skeleton of a new nature reserve. This is going to be a bit different to the freshwater marshland of Seaton Marshes, which is a stone curlew’s throw away to the south, as it will be flooded on certain high tides by saline water from the estuary. This is going to be a salt marsh.
Here’s the geeky technical bit – pay attention as there will be a pop quiz later in the article.
The piece of equipment causing all the stir here is a special valve called a Tidal Exchange Valve, so important that it appears in Capital Letters. Through this tidal water will be allowed to flood, creating wonderful conditions for wetland birds and acting as addition flood defence on super high tides. So everyone’s a winner. The water can be controlled to flood in on very exact tide heights and, better still, when the water gets too high and too much fresh water might get onto the site – the system shuts itself off automatically. Cool.
A central tower hide will provide stunning views across a large saltwater lagoon, deep in some places and shallow in others, providing feeding opportunities for more of the wetland birds that have so enthralled visitors to our two current LNRs. Three kinds of island; grassy, muddy and gravelly, will provide safe roosting opportunities for the birds and could perhaps even see certain key species breeding in years to come. Here’s hoping! Another hide, accessed via a path between a huge old bank and a shiny new reedbed, will sit on stilts and overlook not only the new lagoon, but an area of the estuary which has historically never had much scrutiny. The hides are some way off – many, many months rather than weeks away - but the groundwork has been done and that is the key.
This is a long term plan for the wildlife, with some instant wins for the security of the local population. Wetlands such as this have been proven to be a very effective soft defence against flood events – which considering what we are doing is largely reversing man-made wetlands, to a more natural state – is hardly surprising.
There are two reasons why I am particularly excited by these developments: Firstly, the Higher Level Stewardship scheme, through which DEFRA contracts farmers to improve agricultural land for the benefit of the biodiversity which has disappeared in living memory, proves a National desire to see the reversal of wildlife loss. Secondly, and because this is a Local Authority scheme, the improvements will include ways in which you can enjoy this wildlife spectacle with access-for-all paths, screening and bird hides.
For those of us fortunate enough to live here, the quality of East Devon’s Countryside is regularly quoted as being of the utmost importance to our quality of life. A scheme such as this provides a way to enjoy this quality of life to the full.