Going Green

Monday, October 8, 2007

Salt Marsh or Wheat?

Growing populations, concern over feeding the world, and Britain decides it would prefer swamps.


Farmland yields to major wetland

By Jeremy Cooke
Rural affairs correspondent, BBC News

Looking at Wallasea Island, it's hard to imagine that this flat, featureless landscape is about to become one of Britain's most important wildlife sanctuaries.

But 500 years ago - before this corner of coastal Essex was drained to make way for crop production - this was salt marsh. It was a thriving natural environment teeming with life.

Now, in its most ambitious project in this country, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is about to spend £12m recreating the salt marsh, turning the clock back by hundreds of years.

The plan is simple: the ancient...(complete article here).

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