Lower Otter valley reconnected to the estuary for nature

Budleigh Salterton has been a popular visitor destination since the late 1800’s, known for the tranquil lower otter valley with its traditional pastoral and estuarine vista. Whilst much loved, the Otter Valley landscape has changed over time because of human interventions. Around 200 years ago the river was straightened, and the size of the estuary was effectively halved by an earth embankment which enclosed 55 hectares of land for use in agriculture.  

With climate change causing rising sea levels – the sea is expected to rise by more than a metre during the next 100 years – embankments were under increasing pressure of a catastrophic failure (in 2018 the Environment Agency works narrowly arrested a naturally developing breach). Such an unmanaged failure of the embankment would have led to damage to important local infrastructure, lost opportunities to optimise ecosystems for wildlife and people and even the potential for environmental harm.
 
The task of the Lower Otter Restoration Project team, led by the Environment Agency in partnership with landowner Clinton Devon Estates, was to work with local people and partner organisations to identify and implement changes that enabled natural processes to be reinstated. This involved reconnecting the river, estuary and floodplain, and delivering a more sustainable landscape, rich in wildlife, with the capacity to adapt.
 
Prior to the project’s managed removal of a 70-metre section of the embankment, Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club was relocated to a new purpose-built site on higher ground nearby, a new 500-metre road embankment and bridge was also constructed (taking the road above the level of the tide), a footbridge built across the breach location, a disused council landfill site was capped (to ensure pollutants do not leach into the water) and over 1.5 km of overhead cables were removed to improve the wider landscape. A creek network extending over 6 kilometres was excavated in the fields to carry the water into the newly reconnected floodplain, and an old aqueduct on the Budleigh Brook was replaced by more natural channel which connects to the newly formed creeks.
 
The project increased the area of broadleaf woodland by 2.25ha and planted more than 23,000 trees as mitigation and enhancement. 3,527m of hedgerow has been ‘gapped up’ to improve connectivity and screening for wildlife, and 1.6km of new species-rich hedgerow has been planted.  The creation of 3.3 kilometres of new and upgraded footpaths and 7 bird viewing areas and interpretation boards, has also greatly improved public access to the site. 

Wetland habitats, such as those created by LORP, are increasingly rare, yet they have an increasingly important role to play in the face of climate change, as valuable carbon sinks. The lower Otter is already attracting a large variety of wading birds, such as oystercatchers, whimbrel, dunlin, spoonbill, plovers, lapwings and, while fish such as mullet, gobies, sand smelt, flounder and sea bass have been attracted to the saltier and more sheltered water
 
The Lower Otter Restoration Project was completed in 2023 and was soon designated as a National Nature Reserve. The project has won a number of awards including overall winner at the 2024 Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and 2024 Community Award at the Institute of Civil Engineers SW. Whilst construction works have finished, the site continues to be managed and monitored and the site is expected to continue to develop and evolve over the coming years as nature reclaims the site in a process of renaturalisation.
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Please click this link for a video to find out more about the Lower Otter’s Restoration or www.PACCo-Interreg.com to find out how the Lower Otter Restoration Project is being used to promote national and international learning of we can adapt our coast lines to changing climates. An interview between the chair of the Environment Agency and the Project Manager for the site can be seen here or here.