A radical approach to flooding in England: Give land back to the sea
When a huge tract of land on the Somerset coast was deliberately flooded, the project was slammed as “ridiculous” by a local lawmaker. But the results have been transformative.
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The marsh acts as a natural and hugely effective bulwark against flooding, absorbing and slowing tides before they can encroach inland. Even last winter — the wettest anyone in the area could remember — the village at one edge of the peninsula did not flood. Paths through the marsh remained passable. A steep bank, covered with grass and significantly higher than the old flood wall, now borders the river.
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The alliance between the conservationists and the local population has helped to overcome initial objections to the project. Ms. Laver now oversees a small army of volunteers who help maintain the marsh — trimming hedges, clearing paths. So many want to help that there is a waiting list.
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The most obvious effect of the salt marsh at Steart is in how it counteracts some of the consequences of climate change: absorbing the increasing volume of water that pours from the sky and swells from the banks of the River Parrett.
But it also helps address the underlying cause.
As they planned the project at Steart, Ms. Laver and her colleagues knew that salt marsh trapped carbon. It does this in two ways. The plants that thrive in salt marsh grow quickly, drawing carbon from the atmosphere. And the soils in the marshes are largely anaerobic, meaning they break down carbon in the sediment left behind by retreating tidal waters very slowly — over hundreds, or thousands, of years.
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