Reconstructing Habitats in a Heavily Industrialised Estuary: From Brine Wells to Saltmarsh

This paper explains the challenges faced in recreating intertidal habitats in a heavily industrialised environment at Greatham Creek on the Tees Estuary, Hartlepool. The scheme is a critical project indentified in the Environment Agency’s Tees Strategy; it aims to provide the compensatory habitat that is required as a consequence of proposed flood defence improvements within the Tees Estuary and further habitat to compensate for the predicted effects of the Redcar Flood Alleviation Scheme. The site delivers 22ha of intertidal habitat (collation of mudflat and saltmarsh) plus 18 ha of freshwater and wet grassland habitat. The scheme demonstrates that whilst, dealing with a heavy industrial legacy requires a greater financial outlay, such sites need not be ruled out if alternative sites are unavailable. This may become more important in the future as greenfield sites for MR are used up by the ongoing requirement for compensatory habitat arising from coastal developments and other causes of habitat loss.