ECOS 35(2) 2014 ECOS 35(2) 2014 and elements from the past we want the future to hold. (Ye olde tea shoppe, but with clean modern loos.) Yes – if we can reach consensus on such things. And yes A stormy idea: responding – unless we can replace it with something we feel is better. Can we, though, agree what might be ‘better’…? to rapid change in coastal It may be that we should rethink what ‘heritage’ is about, and in some cases reject it. The idea of heritage is, anyway, becoming quite clouded, in the flux of political and philosophical changes, the slowly growing influence of women, the increased ecosystems clout and demands of youth-culture, and the fascinating but bewildering multi- cultural social mix. We may still need to ask “Whose heritage?”, but the answer is less obvious than it was, and the outcomes may need negotiation. The management of protected areas in coastal environments requires an appreciation of ecological, climatic, socio-political, and economic influences on conservation, and often ‘Heritage’ signifies different things to different people. It is qualified for each of us balancing these factors is problematic. This article looks at the storm surge of 2013, by our upbringing and our experiences. Sometimes, we see what we are told is our and asks what lessons might be learned from such an event, and how this might be of heritage, and we reject it. Sometimes, we shrink from it horrified. We need to check benefit to coastal conservationists in the future. against our personal assumptions what the heritage means and offers to other people. What does it mean and what does it offer, for example, to someone who is chronically THOMAS PRYKE disabled, or blind, to an immigrant or exile, to a devout Moslem, or an animist, to someone suffering agoraphobia, to a down-and-out, or to a victim of rape? The storm surge that struck the east coast of on 5-6 December 2013 had the potential to re-engage both conservationists and the wider public with an Notes area that we, as an island nation, are defined by: our coast. As it transpired, this 1 ‘£3m bid to save Dean traditions’ Forester 9 August 2012. An advertisement by the Forest of Dean event was at the vanguard of the wettest winter recorded for the UK, with parts Landscape Partnership Scheme invited the involvement of local people. of southern England receiving unprecedented levels of rainfall.1 Headline-grabbing 2. Whether or not sheep are a commonable species is disputed. infrastructural damage in the south-west and the politicization of the extensive 3. Tom Brereton (2004) Farming and butterflies in Britain The Biologist 51(1): 32-36. flooding of the Somerset Levels captivated public and politician’s alike2, 3, leaving 4. ‘Sheep-wrecked’ is George Monbiot’s term, in Feral, Allen Lane, 2013. discussions of the coastal storm event to ebb into the background. 5. Fitting the picture isn’t only English, or European, or Western. Eg. Maggie Keswick, in her forward to Ji Cheng’s early seventeenth century Chinese The craft of Gardens (tr. Alison Hardie, Shanghai Press 1988, Betterlink Books 2012), relays the comment of a twentieth century Chinese that “The question of reality will not really bother Taking stock of the 2013 impacts [the garden visitor], as soon as he ceases to be in the garden and starts to live in the painting”. In terms of storm events, this was undoubtedly a significant episode. A combination of low 6. Martin Spray (1993) ‘Concerning little things’, ECOS 14(1) 37-41. atmospheric pressures and high winds coupled with a spring tide resulted in the highest 7. Discussed in Richard Dixon’s The Baumgarten corruption. From sense to nonsense in art and philosophy, storm surge the UK has seen since the fatal event of 19534 (which commemorated its Pluto Press, 1995. 60th anniversary last year5), even being recorded as having surpassed those levels in 8. Slugs, at least, have a champion: the Ugly Animal Preservation Society is actually a stand-up comedy act 6 “dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children”. There some coastal areas of . Thankfully, the coastal defences ensured that this time is a lot to do…. ‘One minute with Simon Watt’ New Scientist 22 June 2013, p. 27; www.newscientist. around no lives were lost as a direct result of the storm surge effects, although extensive com/article/mg21829220.300-forget-pandas--ugly-animals-should-be-protected-too.html#.U8wRaHnjjm4 . and damaging flooding was seen in Scarborough, Yorkshire, Boston, Lincolnshire, and 9. Paul Selman (2010) Learning to love the landscapes of carbon neutrality Landscape research 35(2) 157-71, , . Also, at the village of Hemsby in , several houses that were and online; (2007) What if sustainable landscapes aren’t always beautiful? Landscape Research Extra nr. 43: located on the low, sandy cliffs were washed into the sea. 5-7, and online. 10. Arthur G. Tansley Our heritage of wild nature, C.U.P., 1945. However, what of the effects beyond the infrastructural and property issues that 11. This was before the relief offered by fracking. The ‘peak’ idea has always looked a controversial one, associated with fear of the future rather than an incentive to change direction, let alone with some sense of duty. can dominate the discussions relating to coastal management? Numerous areas 12. To the ocean, too. protected for conservation were severely affected at points all along the East 13. That is a poetic way of expressing it. I do not see Hom. sap. as “outside Nature”. I do not imply that this is Anglian coastline. Overtopping and breaching of natural features and protective or isn’t Ian’s position. sea walls alike resulted in large areas of this coast being inundated, with some of the flooding persistent. The RSPB’s 108ha reserve had, for a Martin Spray is at [email protected] short period, almost entirely disappeared from view after the storm, and significant freshwater such as (owned by and RSPB) were flooded with sea water for a several weeks after the event.

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It is possible that we are in a “period of change” in relation to storminess, but but arguably it is within the spaces that we manage for conservation purposes where we cannot be sure of the present point of the trajectory. There are suggestions we are perhaps more free to allow such coastal changes to be expressed. in the UK Climate Impact Programme’s 2008 Trends report7 that such shifts in storminess are linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), although at present A blessing in disguise? this relationship lacks any quantifiable evidence and no such link was identified Decisions about the current and future management of conservation areas often in the most recent IPCC report.8 Even with such uncertainty regarding predicted involve multiple management inputs coupled with predictive data that generate periodicities and intensities of storms, the surge event of 2013 might offer lessons complex plans and strategies. The issue of sea level rise is the focus of innumerate for coastal conservation management, and perhaps challenge how we think about studies11, and can be readily considered in strategies and plans because of the future storms as part of our planning for climate resilience. more long-term expression of its effects and the progressive nature of predicted change. Storminess, on the other hand, is more of a challenge to plan for, due to Holding your nerve the unpredictability in frequency and size of future events7,8, and because of storm The National Trust reported that the December 2013 storm completely stripped events’ high linkage and dependence on other factors, such as sea level rise, which away the dune systems from a large part of Brancaster beach on the north Norfolk carry the potential to shift the baseline for these events.12 coast overnight. However, within two to three months the sea had re-deposited the material and a significant majority of the dunes had been re-formed, according The December 2013 storm surge caused overtopping and breaching of both natural to the Trust.9 These dunes were almost certainly re-deposited in a different and artificial defences as it tracked along the east coast. estimated configuration, but nevertheless they had returned and were undoubtedly serving a that approximately 4,500 ha of designated coastal nature conservation sites in England protective function once again. were flooded.13 However, for some of these sites such an event might be viewed as something of a release of pressure, in more than one sense, as discussed below. Further down the coast in Suffolk is another example of ecological change, where a leaking pipe allowed for saline water to back-flood a freshwater marshland that was is a predominantly freshwater wetland site located behind an part of the RSPB’s reserve. In a recent interview (conducted as part of wider embankment on the in Suffolk, managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. current research) a local conservation manager recalled the “shock and horror” this Concerns over how a changing climate may affect the site, and what measures was met with by conservation managers, but also how, soon after the event, there might be taken to work with or against natural forces, had been discussed for some was a realisation that the saline area was attracting a novel type of bird population time and tentatively worked into the site’s management plan, yet overnight the there – effectively the “demons became heroes”. Although occurring prior to 2013 storm surge had breached the defensive sea wall in two places causing “irreparable and not storm-related in this instance, one can easily imagine the same consequences damage”.14 The once predominantly freshwater site began to be flooded regularly being replicated by a breached sea or river wall following a storm event. with the tide, gradually transforming it into an intertidal wetland. The game had clearly been changed, with nature alone dictating this new dynamic. In both of these cases, there would have been a loss of natural features in the short-term. Demands to maintain these features, and corresponding pressures to With respect to the complex management of such coastal areas, tidal storm surges maintain overall favourable condition of habitats in statutorily designated areas, and other similar events which bring about such drastic change may be thought of are strong amongst planners and practitioners. Arguably, the consternation is as something of a blessing in disguise. Such events may force people’s hands in terms predominantly generated by the uncomfortable feeling we get when facing the of management choices for a given conservation area. A fatalistic attitude to storm “loss” of features or habitats. This will often result in a call for “swift action” surges may free up the prescriptive management that conservationists often feel from conservation managers and recreational users alike, with management and locked-in to. There are, of course, certain obligations concerning statutory designations intervention measures employed at pace to negate the perceived threats. and corresponding legislation, and these are clearly important – but should they be striven for, not matter what the consequences? In this instance, the storm event itself However, storm events are arguably a function of natural coastal processes and as has ultimately taken charge of our managed landscapes. If we accept that this is a the above examples show, in time, either the interest may return or new natural natural function of coastal processes, then isn’t this the sort of change that should be features will develop in place of those lost. There may in fact be wider benefits from encouraged to elicit more robust and resilient future ecosystems? staying passive before considering any intervention when a prima facie negative change is detected; from the more obvious aspect of reduced expenditure linked to Exactly what will happen at Hazlewood Marshes remains undecided and the Suffolk maintenance works, through to the potential wildlife gains of a more transitional and Wildlife Trust has opened up the discussion to include other local stakeholers.15 dynamic system – a factor which underpins a lot of the rewilding advocacy, and which What is promising, however, is the Trust’s decision to take time to consider its is addressed in the recent European Commission report on managing more wild areas options and the apparent growing willingness to work with nature – a term which in the Natura 2000 network.10 This will not be a viable course of action for every area, is gaining traction, particularly within environmental circles.

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The subject of storms was certainly at the front of people’s minds in early 2014; but is the reason why we are not addressing storm events ostensibly due to the challenge they present to the culture of management prescriptions in conservation, or are there more fundamental problems with our attitude to change and acceptance of uncertainty that underpin this implicit resistance?

A change in mindsets? The critical element of these considerations is how we think about change. When considering management strategies, perhaps if we were to focus more on thinking about coastal processes and how these continually shape our dynamic coastlines and , it might aid appreciation of what is happening at the coast as well as shift attitudes towards how they change. Working with coastal processes does not have to undermine the “protect and preserve” approach to nature conservation, but provides those responsible for coastal conservation with another choice in their options for management. The Suffolk Wildlife Trusts’ handling of the storm surge impacts on Hazlewood Marshes indicates that steps are beginning to be made in 14 One of the embankment breaches at SWT’s Hazlewood reserve. this direction. Photo: M. Pratt. Even if conservation managers and practitioners are now thinking more about trying Barriers at the shore to work with change and building this into management strategies, the success of So what is holding us back from thinking in this arguably more holistic fashion? And this approach may well hinge on the ability to engage local stakeholders, who can how might we get past this barrier? be very influential at the coast and on partnerships, with this new way of thinking. It is often the wider public who struggle most with understanding the Responses to interviews I conducted with coastal stakeholders shortly after the coastal processes driving change and their implications, and importantly the first 2013 storm highlighted how some people find it difficult to think of physical coastal steps towards addressing these issues are being made. Touching the Tide, a three changes without these being amalgamated into concerns over issues related to year Heritage Lottery Fund Landscape Partnership Scheme hosted by the Suffolk climate change. This may well be an indicator of the broad knowledge held by Coast and Heaths AONB, is an example of a program built around the concept respondents of the varied influences on coastal ecosystems and their interactions. of trying to connect the wider public with change at the coast. It looks at both However, more concerning is the possibility that this conflation may indicate that historical and contemporary patterns of coastal morphology, to try and re-engage the appreciation of how coasts naturally change is in fact masked by climate change the idea that these areas have continually changed throughout history.17 – and this itself could well lead to the line of thinking whereby without climate change, the coast would, in essence, largely not be changing. Although unlikely to To date, the predominance of risk-based studies in the literature concerning be explicit, this would certainly position changes due to storms as issues to be dealt management in coastal environments has influenced the conservation management with, rather than opportunities to work alongside natural processes. of these spaces, sometimes leading to overly-cautious advice.18 Where the issue of risk concerns people’s properties, this is to be expected. But more widely, there Stakeholders seem to be largely appreciative of the long-term directional change is the concern that we have become over-reliant on defence structures and the and implications that a rise in relative sea levels may exert on certain parts of our perceived stability they afford, and perhaps now is the time for a shift in thinking coast (take the issue of coastal squeeze, for example). This has consistently been that allows us to deal with uncertainty more comfortably. part of the contemporary coastal management dialogue for quite some time, and is clearly evident in the strategic-level Shoreline Management Plans (SMP), the second I sense that there is a genuine, emerging feeling that the era of controlling – or generation of which are now being slowly rolled-out for their respective coastal even arresting – change is gradually passing, and the growing influence of rewilding zones.16 The concern is, however, that this same respect has not yet been bestowed principles and the concept of allowing for natural processes in both European policy upon storm events, despite their potential to trigger significant ecosystem change and the wider literature is testament to this. Adhering to a strict interventionist over a rapid time scale. Like the events themselves, interest and thought about the approach is challenging to deliver, and increasingly more difficult to defend as an effects of storms appear to manifest and pass in a relatively short period of time. attitude. There is the somewhat cynical criticism that reductions in budgets for Thus how many storms would it take for the issue to take hold and become a coastal and estuarine defence are the main driver of the increasing call to accept consideration in the management process? And at what frequency? more change in these environments, and perhaps this is right. Nevertheless,

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4. McRobie, A., T. Spencer & H. Gerritsen (Eds.) (2005) “The Big Flood: storm surge”, Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society of London A, 363, 1263-1270. 5. BBC News (2013): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-21264408 6. Spencer, T., S. M. Brooks, I. Möller & B. R. Evans (2014) “Where local matters: Impacts of a major North Sea storm surge”, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 95 (30): 269-270. 7. Jenkins, G. J., M. C. Perry & M. J. Prior (2008) The climate of the United Kingdom and recent trends. Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK. 8. Christensen, J.H., K. Krishna Kumar, E. Aldrian, S.-I. An, I.F.A. Cavalcanti, M. de Castro, W. Dong, P. Goswami, A. Hall, J.K. Kanyanga, A. Kitoh, J. Kossin, N.-C. Lau, J. Renwick, D.B. Stephenson, S.-P. Xie & T. Zhou (2013) “Climate Phenomena and their Relevance for Future Regional Climate Change” In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. 9. National Trust (2014) “Near you. News and Events for summer 2014: East of England National Trust” (available on request via: [email protected]) 10. European Commission (2013) Guidelines on Wilderness in Natura 2000: Management of terrestrial wilderness and wild areas within the Natura 2000 Network. Technical Report 2013-069. Accessible here: http://www.eurosite.org/files/WildernessGuidelines.pdf 11. Mcleod, E., B. Poulter, J. Hinkel, E. Reyes & R. Salm (2010) “Sea-level rise impact models and environmental conservation: A review of models and their applications”, Ocean & Coastal Management, 53, 507-517. 12. Wolf J. & R. A. Flather (2005) “Modelling waves and surges during the 1953 storm”, Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society of London A, 363, 1359-1375. 13. (2014): http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/coastalflooding 14. East Anglian Daily Times (2014): http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/hazlewood_marshes_storm_surge_ damaged_vital_wetlands_irretrievably_1_3163555 15. Suffolk Wildlife Trust (2014): http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/reserves/hazlewood-marshes 16. http://www.suffolksmp2.org.uk 17. http://www.touchingthetide.org.uk/ Dingle Marshes in flood, showing the southern breach 2 weeks after the initial flood. 18. UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2014) UKNEAFO Work Package 4 – Coastal/marine ecosystem services: Photo: T. Pryke Principles and Practice – Summary. UNEP-WCMC, LWEC, UK. Thomas Pryke is a PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge conducting an interdisciplinary particularly when following such a significant storm event as December 2013, project on coastal conservation. [email protected] perhaps as conservationists we should use this small momentum as an opportunity to better engage with people in trying to re-think coastal change.

How we manage, steer, or tolerate change and more uncertainty in our lives and in the natural world, is an important contemporary conservation issue. Will we see more holistic thinking in how our coasts are managed? The previous storm of 1953 reasserted the general desire to control and exert dominion over nature at the coast, driving the reinforcement of the armoured coastline and fundamentally changing it at the same time. Might the 2013 storm be the event which shifted attitudes towards an era of working with nature at the coast? Whilst this decision is not entirely in the hands of conservationists, it is within our capabilities to lead the way on the issue, if we choose to…

References 1. Met Office (2014): http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/n/i/Recent_Storms_Briefing_Final_07023.pdf 2. Adams, W. M. (2014): http://thinkinglikeahuman.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/taken-at-the-flood/comment- page-1/#comment-487 3. Robins, M. (2014) “Drowning out nature on the levels”, ECOS, 35(1), 27-30.

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