State 1 Traditionally managed coastal grazing marsh

Coastal and Flood Plain grazing marsh is a general term applied to wet grasslands whether coastal or not. Following enclosure of saltmarsh and/or drainage of other coastal wetlands the original structure of the area helps to determine the range of habitats, present on a particular site. Coastal grazing marsh, for example includes the following components, several derived from the original saltmarsh:

Sea walls	Grazing marsh
Saline seepage areas	Cattle poached areas
Vehicle rutted ground	Dredged spoil heaps
Grassland (alongside the sea wall)	Fleet (former tidal channel)
Counter ditches (alongside sea wall)	Reed beds and scrub (Gray 1977 p. 257)

This state (also applied to coastal wet grassland) is represented by sites where traditional management for grazing domestic stock is the predominant land use.

Caption - Coastal grazing marsh derived form saltmarsh on the north Kent coast, south east England. Cut for hay, note an old tidal creek with Phragmites in the foreground.

In this State the values are principally those associated with nature conservation and landscape. Though as the picture illustrates there is also an economic interest in low intensity agriculture.

References

Gray, A.J. 1977. Reclaimed land. In: The Coastline, ed.Barnes, R.S.K.John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 253-270.