Blair Praises Project to Let Sea Reclaim Farmland and Produce a Haven for Birds
TONY BLAIR has praised one of the RSPB’s first projects towards the regional park, returning 170 hectares of land at Hesketh in West Lancashire to salt marsh.
The RSPB will begin work this month to re-flood 170 hectares of farmland at Hesketh Out Marsh, which was reclaimed from the sea 25 years ago.
Breaches will be put in the sea wall, and the result will be a mix of saltmarsh, saline lagoons and muddy creeks, providing a wetland haven for thousands of wintering birds such as black-tailed godwits, dunlins, avocets, redshanks and wigeons.
Sea level rise means the UK’s saltmarsh is vanishing at the rate of 100 hectares a year. As well as helping to replace this lost habitat, the new marsh at Hesketh will also act as a natural flood defence.
The land has been bought with pounds 2.5m funding from Environment Agency and the Northwest Regional Development Agency through the Lancashire Rural Recovery Action Plan.
The Prime Minister, speaking in Parliament, said: “I congratulate the RSPB, and I want to point out that some of the pounds 2.5m being devoted to the project comes from the Environment Agency.
“The project will be a major advance for the local environment and habitat, and it underlines the importance of having an environment policy that is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting our natural environment in the proper way.”
A spokesman for the RSPB said: “We very much welcome Mr Blair’s kind words and support for the RSPB’s Hesketh Out Marsh project and we also acknowledge the invaluable support of the Environment Agency.
“Although we do have high expectations for Hesketh, I don’t think we would ever claim that it will ensure that the coast of Lancashire is protected from flooding’.
“However, Hesketh is certainly an important and practical on-the- ground response to the possible impact of sea level rise from climate change on the Ribble and we hope that similar opportunities can be taken elsewhere in the North West.
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