Skinflats Saline Lagoons

The saline lagoons and saltmarsh at RSPB Skinflats Reserve are important and increasingly rare habitats in the Forth estuary. This project aimed to create more saltmarsh and lagoon habitats on the Reserve, to make it more attractive to breeding waders like common terns and ringed plover. The project would have topped the existing islands with shingle, which the birds prefer to nest on. The sides of the tidal creeks would have been reshaped, with new creeks created, to increase the amount of saltmarsh, and new scrapes and low points would have been dug to increase the lagoons.

 During spring- summer 2015 the tidal exchange at RSPB Skinflats underwent unanticipated erosion repair works which delayed the start of this project. As such, the future of the tidal exchange was considered, which included re-visiting the activity within this project. A feasibility study was undertaken into carrying out a managed realignment at the reserve. As a result, the project leads (RSPB Scotland) proposed altering the project outputs and budget and sought permission from HLF and their match funders, EcoCoLIFE, to do so. In addition, the parallel loss of other projects within the IFLI portfolio created an opportunity to carry out wetland creation on a far larger scale than was envisaged during the IFLI development phase. In Year 3, the Skinflats Saline Lagoons project was withdrawn and replaced by A3.8 Skinflats Managed Realignment to clarify the project revisions.

For operational reasons and due to new opportunities, the Skinflats Saline Lagoons project was not delivered, and was replaced by a new revised project for the reserve, A3.8 Skinflats Managed Realignment. Details of this project can be found here.

Any queries about the Skinflats Managed Realignment project should be addressed to Toby Wilson, RSPB Senior Conservation Officer toby.wilson@rspb.org.uk.