Biodiversity Action Plan species & habitats - Sea Hog's Fennel (Peucedanum officinale) is one of the rarest coastal plants in Britain. The plant is important as the exclusive foodplant of Fisher's Estuarine Moth (Gortyna borelii). Both of these species have been adopted as a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species within Essex and consequently are the focus of research and conservation effort. The plant also supports another rare moth Agonopteryx putridella that is a national BAP species.

The entire wetland was designed for sustainability of over 200 years. New freshwater area honeypot design to attract key species: -

FLOOD ALLEVIATION - Saved an estimated £500k over the next 20 years on sea wall maintenance. Provided an improved flood defence at the terminal counter walls to east and west.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT - Improved the water quality of the estuary by further treatment of the Wigborough STW by feeding the foul water through the new lake and developing reed bed. This also assists in control of stormwater flows from the STW with direct improvements to the downstream oyster layings.

RECREATION - Provides a new facility in the form of the barge jetty for people to land and have a "bridge" between the sea and the land. Provided 50 hectares of restored high tide navigable water for small craft. Provided about 5km of new public footpaths. Sport fishing for bass.

ECOTOURISM - Provides the opportunity for ecotourism development not only directly at this site, but to the potential of joining up with the adjacent landowners at a future date on an enlarged wetland that could stretch over 10km [Strood to Salcott] and cover over 1000 hectares.

FISHERIES - Independent monitoring has shown that the site is an important provider as a habitat for fish fry, in particular commercial fish such as herring and bass. R & D is now being put in place to develop an EU wide estuary fish monitoring methodology, based on Abbotts Hall.

WATER QUALITY - Previous research by Imperial College has demonstrated how new saltings, created by realignment, improve water quality by soaking up both heavy metals and agro-chemicals. The 50 hectares at Abbotts will assist in this function for the estuary. FOOD SOURCE -Sheep, samphire, asparagus, sea spinach are being developed.

Increase the number of breeding wading birds - Hundreds of over wintering waders and wildfowl arrived in autumn 2003 to feed on the new wetlands. These included teal, mallard, spotted redshank, black tailed godwit and golden plover. Above this the new ESA grassland attracted brent geese, with wintering counts peaking at 1,700. Little egret numbers peaked in autumn 2003 with up to 30 roosting in the willow by the new lake and feeding in the inter-tidal areas.Considerable numbers of birds using the Blackwater SPA are also making use of the new realignment. Peak overwintering counts during 2003/04 was 2275 for all species. This included wigeon (186 and also roost on site), teal (270 and also roost on site), little egret (13), Lapwing (1050 and roost at low tide), golden plover (820 and roost at low tide), dunlin (75), ruff (15), spotted redshank (23), greenshank (6), redshank (81), snipe (50 and linnet (250). In addition, water rail has been observed on two occasions in the new alignment.The number of breeding birds of note on the re-alignment include shelduck (7 pairs); oystercatcher (7 pairs); avocet (3 pairs); redshank (5 pairs); skylark (27 pairs); yellow wagtails (6 pairs), whilst on the new lake pochard (10 pairs);tufted duck (7 pairs) and possibly teal, shelduck and avocet.

Contribute to restoration of flodplain functions - Essex had originally 30k hectares of saltmarsh 400 years ago. As a result of enwalling and erosion this was reduced to 2,800 hectares by 2002. Although there are a plethora of strategies and plans for salting restoration in Essex, the reality was that only 60 hectares had been re-created in the preceding 10 years. The project had two main objections · Create a demonstration site so that people could actually see what a realignment site looked like, and hence reduce objections on future proposed sites, i.e. reduce the fear of the unknown. · Act as a large "test tank " to measure what actually happened on hydrodynamic impacts rather than what computer models [the best only 50% accurate] predicted.

Since the coastal re-alignment in October 2002 at least 10 species of fish are using the area for feeding/breeding, including sand smelt, three spined stickleback and common goby. Most notable are bass and herring. Other marine life include shore crabs, common jellyfish, lugworms and common shrimp. Furthermore, saltmarsh plants have rapidly colonised the new habitat dominated by glassworts, grass leaved orache, sea spurrey, annual sea blite. Shrubby sea blite, shrubby glasswort and sea purslane are beginning to establish.

In preparation for Abbotts Hall Farm to be open for members of the public access paths, fences, gates and signs have been installed to protect the public from the dangers of a working farm. Visitor toilets have also been installed. A major attraction for the public is the birds and the first of several hides have been installed including a recycled plastic hide. Since April 2004 Abbotts Hall Farm has been open to the public from 9-5, Monday to Friday.

The former can be summarised by "the big tent concept," i.e. invite all those who may have an interest in a new coastal wetland, including those opposed, to take part in a project team to develop the idea. This took the form of an initial formal communication strategy that invited views and comments from identified local and national organisations and a "seat on the board" of those that wanted an active interest. The initial consultation was with 30 organisations, the latter over 100 individuals. The BBC included interviews and opinions from many local people and ""water"" users and those that live in flood plains protected by sea walls. At the same time the BBC Wildlife Unit at Bristol took up the offer to make a "fly on the wall" documentary about the project, before it had been constructed or planning permission granted. Although this was high risk the resulting film has been seen by an estimated 1.50 million viewers, with 4 repeats and won best environmental programme for 2003.The latter was created in two ways as a result of the initial communication strategy - design features to be inclusive, e.g. the jetty, new footpaths, restraining sill to breach B, feeding of the STW at Wigborough through the new lake, and by an ongoing communication strategy that was both formal, e.g. separate meetings with the oystermen, newsletters, information pamphlets and "informal" chats and meetings with those that had concerns or wished to develop products and outcomes, e.g. expansion of oyster grounds, samphire harvesting, chutney, asparagus, guided walks etc plus the open and all inclusive guest list on opening day. The opening day itself invited local people to sail their small craft through the breach and be the first to navigate on the marsh since it was enclosed 400 years ago.