Local Wildlife Sites are areas of land that are especially important for their wildlife. They are some of our most valuable wildlife areas.

It’s Week 3 of the Essex Coastal Challenge and we’re exploring the Blackwater and Colne, its coastal communities, and our precious wildlife that we share our shores with.

Essex is blessed with a rich and varied wildlife heritage and the county is famous for its coastline, arguably the longest in England; the coastal wetlands of Essex are renowned for their extensive areas of grazing marsh, lagoons, shingle, mudflats, saltmarsh, fresh water pools and reedbeds. In addition, there are extensive river systems, tracts of ancient woodland, mosaic and grassland, and important brownfield sites, with heaths, wetlands and important wildlife corridors scattered throughout the county within the wider farmed countryside. These beautiful wild places are vulnerable and many are under threat from development.