RSPB Wallasea Island, in Rochford, includes vast amounts of material excavated during the construction of tunnels beneath London for the Elizabeth Line.
This was brought to Wallasea by ship and used to raise land levels and create a new 115-hectare intertidal area of salt marsh, equivalent to 172 football pitches, islands and mudflats at the Crouch and Roach estuaries.
Nature reserve – RSPB Wallasea Island (Image: PA)
Now the 740-hectare reserve at Rochford is set to grow by a further 100 hectares – an area the size of 140 football pitches – with the purchase of four fields to the west of the site.
This will enable the creation of a new lagoon at the wildlife haven, which will provide the reserve’s first body of freshwater and vast areas of natural grassland.
The RSPB hopes the expansion will provide further habitat to rare and threatened wildlife such as lapwings, redshanks and avocets.
Lagoon – The reserve will be expanded by 140 football pitches (Image: PA)
The island was originally developed on arable farmland owned by Wallasea Farms, and the newly purchased fields on the west boundary of the reserve also come from the same farm.
The farm owners had been wanting to sell the land for a while due to the challenging impacts of climate change on coastal areas, with the low seawall on the south of the island making the land susceptible to sea level rise.
Conservationists from the RSPB will be creating a six-hectare lagoon in the easternmost of the four fields.
The other three new fields will be developed into a mixed scrub and grassland mosaic with additional wet areas to provide extra habitat for breeding lowland farmland birds called corn buntings, as well as feeding habitat for wintering raptors.
The purchase was funded by a donation from charity The Ida Davis Family Foundation, which seeks to protect the natural environment.
Rachel Fancy, site manager at Wallasea Island, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Ida Davis Family Foundation for giving us the money to buy the land adjacent to the reserve.
“This is an exciting project which will allow us to create vital new habitats, adding to the mix of wildlife already present on the reserve.”
Ken Davis, of the Ida Davis Family Foundation, said: “We were extremely pleased to be able to help the RSPB fulfil its ambition to expand the Wallasea Island Nature Reserve.
“Our funding will help create a freshwater lagoon on the peninsula, which will lead to an increase in visiting waders and allow more visitors to connect with nature.
“My mother, after whom our foundation is named, was a local Leigh on Sea resident and a nature lover, and she would very much have appreciated and enjoyed this commitment to our local wildlife.”
Work to expand the reserve is set to begin later this year.