Guidance - restoring saltmarsh habitat

The three saltmarsh states relevant to this section of the guide are concerned with the status of the habitat as a whole. Changing these states is largely a matter of reversing the erosional State 1, by encouraging the establishment of saltmarsh vegetation. Generally saltmarshes in a state of 'dynamic equilibrium' (State 2) are likely to be managed to preserve the status quo. The guidance associated with re-creating saltmarsh i.e. moving from State 1 to State 2 involves restoring or re-creating saltmarsh seawards of the eroding saltmarsh edge. This is done by encouraging accretion and the development of new pioneer saltmarsh (State 3). [Guidance for restoring degraded saltmarsh vegetation is dealt with in a separate section].

The main routes for restorative action are shown below:

Caption: The arrows indicate the principle routes for change: red arrows imply loss of interest (increase in erosion in this case); green the route to restoring this interest (promoting stability); blue arrows movement between states having different attributes, but not necessarily representing adverse change. The green arrows relate to the control of Spartina, which is mainly concerned with re-creating open tidal mudflats.

Comment: This section of the guidance should be read in conjunction with approaches to managed realignment, which seeks to recreate saltmarsh to landward, especially in areas where sea level is rising relative to the land.