Wilder Humber’s ambitious 5 year programme seeks to restore marine habitats and species throughout the Humber estuary. Delivered through a pioneering conservation partnership between Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, and international green energy leader Ørsted it will trial a seascape scale model, combining sand dune, saltmarsh, seagrass, and native oyster restoration to maximise conservation and biodiversity benefits.
Habitats are vanishing at alarming rates and species are in rapid decline. The vast seagrass meadows at Spurn Point have all but disappeared, covering less than 2% of their historic area - while the oyster reef that stretched across the entire mouth of the estuary and was once so expansive it posed a hazard to shipping, today is functionally extinct.
Wetland ecosystems such as saltmarshes, sand dunes, oyster reefs and seagrass meadows serve as buffers during storms and extreme events while also providing important coastal habitats for a variety of different plant and animal species. They dampen the force of waves, protect coastline from erosion, and absorb flood waters, decreasing property damage in adjacent communities.The loss of these natural coastal defences leaves shores exposed and vulnerable to erosion.
The Humber estuary's seagrass and oysters are keystone species - ecological engineers which shape the landscape, sequester carbon and fuel biodiversity by providing a vital habitat and spawning ground for fish and other marine species. An estimated 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent is captured each year in UK marine ecosystems. Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.
Wilder Humber aims to restore and enrich nearly 40 hectares of estuarine habitats, including:
- Reintroducing 500,000 native oysters into the Humber
- Restoring 30 hectares of seagrass meadow at Spurn Point
- Enriching 2 hectares of saltmarsh
- Reconnecting sand dunes and improving ecosystem succession