Coastal adaption: How a CLA member's conservation project helps protect rural communities

An ambitious conservation project has connected Devon’s River Otter to its historic floodplain, helping restore nature and protect rural communities and businesses from the effects of climate change. “Whether we like it or not, sea level rises are coming our way,” says Dr Sam Bridgewater, Director of Environment Strategy and Evidence at Clinton Devon Estates. “If you look at what sea level rises could mean around the coast of the UK, it is incredibly scary for many communities. But we’re ready for it on the River Otter.”

The Lower Otter Restoration Project – one of the most significant conservation projects in South West England - was completed in early 2024, delivering a managed realignment scheme where the river meets the sea. It was necessary because the embankment, built 200 years ago to create more farmland, was failing. The plan was to reconnect the river to its historic floodplain and return the Lower Otter Valley to a more natural condition.

Doing nothing was simply not an option, Sam says. “Taking a King Canute stance is not being responsible. Within the valley are some of Devon’s busiest public footpaths, an old municipal tip that’s a high environmental risk and a popular cricket club. All were subject to flooding with risks rising every year as the embankment aged. All of this was under threat had action not been taken to protect the local landscape.”

The project was central to Clinton Devon Estate’s 2030 land use strategy, with two of its ambitions being adaptation to a changing climate and restoring the ecological health of its land holdings.

The scheme was the brainchild of the 22nd Baron Clinton, who died in April 2024 having followed the project to its completion. He recognised the risk of embankment failure and the need to manage the valley as sustainably as possible in the face of a rapidly changing climate. The estate and the Environment Agency devised an ambitious plan to reconnect the river and estuary to its former floodplain, providing space for floodwater and creating habitats for invertebrates, fish, waders and wildfowl.

It started in 2009 when the estate commissioned a report from Haycock Associates to explore the issues and develop several solutions.

Sam says: “We looked at a number of options for addressing the threat of rising sea levels and a failing embankment. The option that made most sense was the boldest one, if we were brave enough to accept it. The driver for our decision to pursue it was the belief that, in the absence of unlimited money to build an embankment higher and wider, the sea was coming up the valley whether we liked it or not. It would have been remiss of us not to show good stewardship by not addressing the problems that affected multiple organisations.”

One of the key aspects in the project’s success was engagement with the local community. “The Otter Valley is much loved, and the scale of change we were proposing was uncomfortable,” Sam says. “We conducted a long engagement process. It was a difficult period trying to communicate to residents and businesses what we were trying to achieve and why, while also listening to understand the varied community views on the qualities of the existing landscape and climate change risks. As the land was farmed, we also had discussions with the tenant farmers about their future, finding solutions that enabled them to remain productive agricultural businesses.”

In tandem with a sister project in the Saâne Valley, Normandy, investment came from the EU under the Promoting Adaptation to Changing Coasts initiative. This scheme seeks to show that it is possible to adapt to climate change and provide a model that could be adopted by up to 70 other at-risk estuaries on both sides of the English Channel. Significant funding also came from the Environment Agency due to the scheme’s potential to deliver compensatory habitat that would enable the delivery of crucial flood defence works on the adjacent Exe Estuary.

While climate change adaptation is difficult, it brings multiple benefits, as shown by this project. Not only has it created 55ha of mudflat and saltmarsh by allowing the tide to flow freely in and out of a new inter-tidal area, but South Farm Road has been moved and raised, and Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club has moved to a flood-free pitch, with improved facilities to help it grow its youth, women’s and disability cricket teams. The construction of a 70m footbridge in the location of the breach also ensures the continuity of the South West Coast Path.

Sam says: “The water is flowing in and out as it did hundreds of years ago, the birds are coming back and plants associated with saltmarsh and mudflat are already colonising. It’s given the valley a new lease of life. In terms of farming, we’ve made sure that our tenant farmers can continue to operate and that our agriculture and productive land can produce food.”

Clinton Devon Estates hopes the project will become a model for climate adaptation and wildlife improvement.

Sam adds: “There would have been a far greater impact on society and farming if we’d done nothing. One of the lessons from this is early action is it is better than taking action too late or never. Our model may not be appropriate for everyone but we hope it inspires others. Every estuary will need to look at and assess the risks and find a model of their own to tackle sea rise. But there is an awful lot of learning that has come from what we have achieved here on the Lower Otter.”