New life from old barges: National Trust undertakes ultimate recycling mission to create island haven for endangered seabirds - National Trust

A bold marine engineering feat is taking shape in the Blackwater Estuary, Essex, where the National Trust has sunk three decommissioned Thames lighters to form a brand-new island designed to help protect some of the UK’s most threatened seabirds.

The project—believed to be the first of its kind in the UK—marks the latest chapter in more than 30 years of cutting edge coastal adaptation work in the estuary where the conservation charity has been trialling innovative, nature based solutions to protect Northey Island against rising sea levels and the rapid loss of saltmarsh.

Working with the Environment Agency, Natural England, Maldon Harbour Improvement Commissioners, specialist engineering and environmental consultants Royal Haskoning DHV and specialist marine contractors Landbreach Ltd, the Trust has repurposed three flatbottomed barges, dating back to the 1950s, to create a stable structure that will soon become a new habitat and roosting refuge for red-listed birds including dunlin, curlew, lapwing and ringed plover, as well as vulnerable seabirds such as little terns and avocets. The Blackwater Estuary is home to around 10% of the UK’s population of Brent geese.

Once used to transport building materials, coal and food from the Port of London, the retired lighters have spent more than 30 years moored in Essex. Measuring between 20 and 32 metres long, they now sit on the inter-tidal mudflats of the estuary creating a new land mass on the edge of the existing saltmarsh at Northey Island and have begun their second life as part of pioneering conservation efforts.