The Red Hills of Essex: Salt-making in Antiquity

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Along the coastline of the Maldon District, five Saltmarsh Coast Hubs have been installed.Providingthe opportunityto learninterestingfacts about this fascinating part of theEssexCoast, thehubscan be found at Tollesbury, Heybridge Basin, Bradwell-on-Sea and Burnham-on-Crouch.

However, their current rate of loss is estimated at 1-2% per year, making marshes one of the fastest disappearing ecosystems worldwide. Additionally, audio posts andsignswill help guide your journey along our coastline.This work has been undertaken as part of the Maldon District Council’s Dengie Gateway Project funded by the Coastal Community’s Fund. If sea level rise gets to greater than 7.1 millimeters [a quarter of an inch] per year, nine times out of 10, the marshes will retreat,” said co-author Ben Horton, a director at the Earth Observatory of Singapore. The Saltmarsh Coast is an important wildlife habitat, with plenty ofopen spaces, tidal estuaries, traditional villages and historic towns. It is the perfect destination to stretch your legs and discover something new.It just shows the power of the fence,” Wartman said. “If you prevent cattle from going on and heavily grazing and trampling the salt marsh, it can, if there’s enough of a seedling population, naturally regenerate.”

It takes over and outcompetes the less productive estuarine species, so you often have a loss of your native salt marsh species,” said Johan Wasserman, a research assistant at Nelson Mandela University. “It changes food webs and the type of food available.” Banner image: The Essex Wildlife Trust team installs salt marsh sausages. Image courtesy of Essex Wildlife Trust. Granular salt has a range of uses including for regeneration of water softeners, dishwashers and swimming pools. At PureSalt, we supply Hydrosoft granular salt which is the very best granular salt brand on the market and is suitable for all dishwashers and granular salt water softeners. Suitable for both commercial and domestic use, our granular salt is available to buy in both 10 and 25kg bags. PDV Salt Rust Out softener rust remover chemically removes iron and rust build-up that coats the resin beds and fouls the softener. This iron build-up is not totally removed during normal regeneration of a water softener. Using Rust Out softener rust remover in a water softener will eliminate rust and foreign matter from the resin bed which increases the life of the softener and reduces rust staining on household fixtures and other surfaces. We recommend using the softener rust remover regularly as preventative maintenance to ensure the softening and recharging efficiency of the softener’s resin bed. Additionally, in applications where iron is present you can use our well water formula to fight annoying rust stains. We are a family business, whose loyal staff choose to work for PureSalt because we put people first. As a result, the service that we provide to every customer is personal. Leadership from one of the most experienced and respected figures in the UK salt industry, means that PureSalt’s customers receive the best expert advice.As with the Essex estuary, hope comes in the form of returning birds. The project has had a victory in the sighting of a rare orange-bellied parrot ( Neophema chrysogaster). With fewer than 50 left in the wild, the parrot is at risk of extinction within five years. At Essex Salt Ltd, we aim to be as open and transparent as possible with our users about the personal data we collect to provide that service, how it is used, and with whom it is shared.

Fencing is an affordable and low-impact intervention commonly used to protect marshes, and it’s showing strikingly visible results here. The program monitors and compares a grazed pasture with two former pastures that have been reverting naturally to marsh behind cattle-excluding fences, one for 12 years the other for two years. The 12-year-old restored marsh is bright with vegetation, and the grazed land covered in low grass.Langley said that while it’s still early days, she hopes her sausages will prove useful and can be deployed to stabilize marshes elsewhere. In the face of climate change, the sausages are among various interventions that researchers are testing for their ability to help protect and regenerate one of the world’s most threatened habitat types. On one of the first dry, hot days of summer, Rachel Langley walks past farmhouses and tractors, heading for the edge of the Colne Estuary in Essex, U.K. She’s on her way to see how her “salt marsh sausages” are doing. Our Water Softener Salt delivery service now covers all of Essex, and most of East London and East Herts.

The teams monitor vegetation establishment and the amount of carbon being stored in the sediment, and they use drone images to assess how the sausages might be affecting the channels and their ability to buffer incoming tides. The sediment is accreting, which is good news,” she says, pointing to the green algae taking hold, a sign that pioneer species like samphire ( Salicornia europaea) should soon be able to take root. We can’t wait for action when it comes to climate change, we need to be innovative and be trialing different approaches now,” she said. Many of the nature reserves are managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust, RSPB and National Trust. These reserves are ideal for walkers, wildlife enthusiasts and anyone who wants to experience the diverse habitats of the Maldon District.

Deliveries being made by our partners including Royal Mail and the Pallet delivery network are currently unaffected but may have some slight changes to services. PureSalt is the UK’s leading salt distributor, supplying thousands of tonnes of salt to businesses and homes every year. We use our in-depth understanding and industry knowledge to select salt products that we know are outstanding quality, suitable for both domestic and commercial use. We can also guarantee the most competitive prices available for the best brands of salt. The herbicide intervention at Great Brak shows how indigenous salt marshes can be saved using existing control methods. Countries around the world are looking for a diverse toolbox of well-studied interventions to protect their salt marshes from sea level rise and extreme weather events — the more affordable and accessible, the better. Burnham-on-Crouch is located on the Dengie Peninsula and is a renowned yachting centreknown as the 'Cowes of the East Coast' within sailing circles. This historic maritime town is also known for its oyster beds, boat building, and events such as the famous Burnham Week andBurnham Carnival. Smooth cordgrass ( Spartina alterniflora) was first observed there in 2004. The species, native to the Americas’ east coast, has been planted for erosion control outside its range, where it often proves invasive. Before 2004, it had never been seen in South Africa, and its discovery in the Great Brak Estuary caused alarm.