VOLUNTEERS marked their first year of work at Steart Marshes nature reserve last week, just ahead of the weekend’s big tides.

The volunteer team first came together a year ago to plant two community orchards and have since helped Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) warden Alys Laver prepare and tend the hundreds of hectares of wetlands, which provides a habitat for wildlife and coastal flooding defence.

As well as managing the marshes, the volunteers keep track of the wildlife which has been flocking to the area and take the public on guided walks.

Over the weekend, the highest tides of the year so far covered the marshes as they are designed to flood about 100 times a year, bringing new life into the dynamic environment, in the form of silt, seeds and fragments of vegetation that are starting to form the emerging salt marsh.

Volunteer Dick Best said: “It’s wonderful that we, as the local community, are so involved with Steart Marshes.

“It feels like a real community effort, which I think is really important.

“We spent years discussing the plans on paper with WWT and the Environment Agency, and now we’re the ones putting plants in the ground and showing visitors round our marshes.”

Senior conservation warden Alys Laver added: “We absolutely couldn’t manage without the help of the amazing local volunteers.

“They’re a pleasure to work with, they’re so enthusiastic, and they should be really proud of everything they’ve achieved this year.”