Wallasea Island nature reserve project construction begins

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19598532


Construction work has begun on Europe's largest man-made nature reserve, located in Essex.

Wallasea Island is being transformed from farmland into a 670-hectare (1,500-acre) wetland.

The site is using 4.5 million tonnes of earth excavated from the Crossrail project, for which a 21km (13 mile) tunnel is being bored through London.

The land will be transformed into marshes, lagoons and mudflats to attract birds and other wildlife.

[hunter]

1. Recreating lost wetlands is a great idea.

And it's something we ought to practice regularly as the oceans rise....

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It's important in that area, and I think that's part of the motivation

The area has had bad floods (from the North Sea) before, and is sinking (after-effects of the bounceback of land from the last Ice Age), in addition to global rising sea levels. While London is protected by the Thames Barrier, the estuary, where this is, is not - and wetlands do a good job of absorbing storm surges.

Plus, according to Wikipedia, this was mandated by European courts because other marshes were developed for ports: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallasea_Wetlands