1A decade after work began, an ambitious wetland restoration is bearing fruit.
2The once-degraded marshland now teems with species unseen there for generations.
3Surveyors this spring recorded the return of several rare wading birds.
4Otters, absent since the nineteen seventies, have been spotted raising young.
5The transformation followed the removal of old drainage channels and sluices.
6By allowing the land to flood naturally, engineers recreated a thriving habitat.
7The project covered some two thousand hectares of former farmland.
8Convincing landowners to participate proved the scheme's greatest early hurdle.
9Many farmers were eventually won over by generous compensation agreements.
10Some now earn more from conservation payments than they did from grazing.
11Hydrologists say the wetland now acts as a vast natural sponge.
12During heavy storms it absorbs water that would once have flooded nearby villages.
13Flood damage claims in the area have fallen markedly in recent years.
14The site has also become a significant draw for birdwatchers and walkers.
15Visitor spending has provided a modest but welcome boost to the local economy.
16Not everything has gone according to plan, the project director concedes.
17Invasive plants have repeatedly colonised sections of the newly flooded ground.
18Keeping them in check requires constant, labour-intensive management.
19Nevertheless, the scheme is now cited as a template for projects nationwide.
20Officials hope its lessons will inform restoration efforts for decades to come.