Wroxham Broad island restored in innovative partnership project
Final planting by Broads Conservation Volunteers: Thursday May 12th, 10.30 am
A 700m island separating Wroxham Broad from the River Bure has been re-sculptured in an innovative and imaginative restoration project involving the Broads Authority, Norfolk Broads Yacht Club, and the landowner, Trafford Estates.
Wroxham Broad island, which supports free Broads Authority 24 hour moorings on its eastern bank, was in danger of being divided in two through wind and wave erosion. At its narrowest point in the centre the island is a metre wide.
Over the last five years the Broads Authority, Norfolk Broads Yacht Club (NBYC) and the landowner have been working together to restore the island with a £17,850 grant from the Sustainable Development Fund and contributions from NBYC and Broads Authority Conservation Volunteers.
On Thursday May 12th, 10.30 am the NBYC Commodore, David Jobson, and Broads Authority Conservation volunteers will add the finishing touches to the island by planting it out with wetland wildflowers.
Mike Evans, a trustee of the yacht club and chairman of the Norfolk and Suffolk Boating Association, said:
” We have stopped the erosion of the island where it was particularly bad and improved its ecology very significantly. It’s been a great piece of teamwork between everybody concerned and it’s good to see the benefit to both wildlife and sailing.
There are now many more birds nesting there including kingfishers, and the rare Cetti’s warbler is commonly found in the marsh. There are much greater numbers of wintering ducks such as Tufted and Pochard and a profusion of wild flowers and marsh plants including orchids.”
Over the last five years NBYC members have put in 237 man days clearing scrub, which had lead to the virtual extinction of natural vegetation such as reed and sedge on the island, exposing the western edge, overlooking the broad, to serious wave erosion.
A ninety metre stretch of alder pole piling has been installed on the broad side of the island by a local contractor using alder poles cut from woods on the broad’s edge. The piling has been back filled with dredgings from the broad and river which have been planted with reed, sedge and rush by Broads Authority Conservation Volunteers over a period of five weeks. A geo-textile membrane has been used as a flooring to prevent the dredgings being washed away.
The volunteers experienced a moment of excitement last July when they discovered an unexploded Second World War Mills hand grenade lurking in the dredgings. They evacuated the island so that a bomb disposal team could explode it.
Coir rolls implanted with reed and sedge have been attached like hanging baskets to the outside of the piling, to protect it from erosion. An underwater plastic curtain has been installed two to three metres in front of the piling to provide temporary protection from wave action until the reed fringe has grown.
Broads Authority Countryside Ranger Elaina Slark, who has led the pilot project, said:
“It is hoped that the natural reed fringe will become a self-sustaining and natural erosion protection barrier for the island, thus demonstrating the sustainability of the project.”
04/05/05
