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| Sefton Coast Partnership | Shoreline Management | Nature and Wildlife | Coastal Heritage | Visiting the Coast | Students and Teachers | Coastlines | |
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Summer 1999The Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve - 20 years onArticle by Dick Lambert, Site ManagerThis year (1999) marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve, an area now occupying over 60% of the Ribble estuary and managed by English Nature. Local people may well remember the newspaper headlines back in 1979, in the national as well as the local press, recording the strenuous efforts that were being made to prevent the embanking of Banks Marsh and the loss of a huge area of salt marsh to intensive agriculture. As a result of pressure from local interest groups and national conservation organisations the Government of the time were persuaded to part with almost £1.75 million to purchase the marsh for the nation, one of the most expensive purchases of land for nature conservation purposes ever made in the UK. Consequently a sizeable area of the estuary was handed over to English Nature’s predecessor, the Nature Conservancy Council, to be managed as a National Nature Reserve and to “maintain the traditional uses of the salt marsh” to quote Dennis Howell, who was the Environment Minister then. Prior to 1979 the estuary was recognised as an important site for birds, particularly for waders such as Knot and Oystercatcher and wildfowl such as Pink-footed Geese and Wigeon, which all spend the winter here. The waders visit the estuary to take advantage of the millions of small mud-dwelling animals which are uncovered by each low-tide, while the most numerous wildfowl come to feed on the sweet grasses found on the salt marshes. But the presence of large amounts of food for the birds is only half of the story. In order for an area to be attractive to birds there also need to be areas where, and times of the day when, they can rest and not be disturbed. These conditions were reasonably available to the birds in parts of the estuary some 20 years ago, such that maximum counts of over 60 thousand waders and 10 thousand wildfowl were regularly recorded in the years leading up to 1979. Since then the team of local volunteers, who turn out each month to monitor the bird numbers, have recorded steady increases, leading to figures in excess of 150 thousand waders and 120 thousand wildfowl in recent winters. It may be that there is now more food for the birds. The salt marshes continue to increase in size each year and milder winters may result in more grass and more invertebrates in the mud, but it is also important to record that the level of disturbance that the birds have to suffer has been reduced successfully over the intervening years. We now understand the importance of providing birds with the opportunity to rest for part of each day and that different species rest at different times. Building this into the way in which people use an area like the Ribble estuary is not simple, but there have been some notable successes. Wildfowling is one of the traditional activities on salt marshes that Dennis Howell referred to in his designation speech. Managing this activity on the Reserve has been a key part of the improvement of the estuary’s wildlife, and the improvement has been achieved by reducing the amount of disturbance that it causes. The response of the birds is probably best illustrated by the Wigeon, a small grass-feeding duck which breeds mainly in Iceland and central Russia and spends the winter in Britain and Ireland. Averaging about 6,000 birds each winter in the late 1970s its numbers rapidly built to 20,000 by the mid 1980s, 50,000 by the late 1980s and 80,000 by the mid 1990s with a record UK count of 110,000 birds in December 1994. This was almost a third of the total Wigeon population in the UK that winter and is really too great a proportion on one site for the well-being of the species. However the numbers now appear to be levelling off at around 80,000, making the Ribble estuary one of the most important sites in western Europe for this species alone. Add to this another fifteen species of waterfowl which winter here in internationally important numbers and a regular mid-winter peak of up to a quarter of a million birds and you get an idea of just how important the estuary has become. But there is yet another success story to tell. The estuary is both a large and complex site, not only in the way it is used by wildlife but also in the way in which people use it. From industry to waste disposal, fishing to farming, bird watching to wildfowling, the uses and the range of interests are legion. Fortunately there has been a long history of people working together to protect common interests, and this culminated in the Ribble Estuary Strategy, a formalised system for people with often very different backgrounds to share ideas and prevent conflicts of interest developing into real problems. It appears to be working well and, if it continues to do so, the future for the estuary looks bright. So the story has been one of repeated successes for the wildlife and for English Nature. The Reserve has grown from its original 2,182 hectares to over 4,500 hectares and the birds using the site each winter have increased from under 100,000 to over 200,000. The estuary has truly become one of the most important wetland sites in the UK and ranks among the top sites in western Europe. Hopefully this trend will be maintained. It certainly will if the many groups with an interest in the estuary continue to work together to ensure future opportunities for work and enjoyment for people and a marvellous haven for wildlife for many generations to come.
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