Environmental Charity submits plans to recreate Salt Marshes at River Wear bank at Clauxheugh Rock

An Environmental Charity has applied to Sunderland City council for permission to recreate Salt Marshes on the banks of the River Wear at Clauxheugh Rock.

A Salt Marsh is defined as an area of grassland that is regularly flooded by sea water. This makes it a home to various kinds of wildlife and environmentally beneficial.

During the age of industrialisation, the salt marshes of the River Wear were torn up and removed to make way for dock, quay and shipyard infrastructure.

Project manager of Groundwork North East, Hellen Hornby who is applying to do the work, said: “We can’t remove quay walls, dock structures and other large industrial constructs, so finding these little pockets of land and trying to extend and improve what we have is crucial.”

If permission for the projects is given, brushwood bundles secured with chestnut stakes would be installed along the foreshore.

This would slow the river flow, remove sediment from the water and allow mud, sand and silt to build up.