Gift to Nature
an Isle of Wight conservation partnership
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Thorness Bay Saltmarsh
One of the very few active ‘managed retreat’ projects currently underway in the Solent. Gift to Naturehas worked with two landowners and Natural England for the past nine years to undertake the feasibility study and then arrange the delivery of a project that will see 30ha of reclaimed SSSI grazing land with overlapping European conservation designations returned to tidal creek, a priority habitat.
Gift to Nature has funded different parts of this ambitious work through lottery, Leader+ and countryside stewardship (Defra). The project has been visited by students and staff from Southampton University and by delegates from SCOPAC as well as hosting a research visit by Environment Agency staff. The site includes a section of the coastal path and is close to Thorness Bay Holiday Park where we have worked with park management (in part through their participation in the David Bellamy Awards scheme) and the AONB Partnership to manage visitor pressure along this ecologically sensitive dune and shingle beach. All of the major habitat and drainage works are now in place though there is scope to further enhance these. Annual monitoring is undertaken as far as budgets allow.
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Projects
- Save our Swifts
- Hedgehog Campaign
- Pan Mill Meadows
- Bees
- Elm Trees
- Troll Trail
- Alverstone Marsh
- Red Squirrel Hide at Parkhurst Forest
- Wetland Walk and Community Orchard
- Ventnor Wall Lizards
- Black Poplars
- Thorness Bay Saltmarsh
- One Horse Field
- Arreton Cross
- Island Climate Care
- Bohemia Bog
- Munsley Bog
- West Wight Nursery
