Long marsh is a small strip of semi-improved grassland and saltmarsh with limited hydrological connectivity to the estuary. The hard defences and raised banks of the 1830s subsequently disconnected the wetland from river, resulting in a transition to a more terrestrial habitat.

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Figure 1: Long Marsh. View of the habitat from the beginning of the existing walkway, next to the tidal gate. Soil
erosion is very clear in this picture, the high sediment load in the murky creek is also visible.

Home reach marsh is a narrow band of brackish marsh partially maintained by grazing geese. The inland section is bounded by a line of trees, including some deadwood. The marsh is dominated by Agrostis stolonifera community and on brief inspection appeared to have a variety of other transitional saltmarsh plants.

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Figure 2: Home reach, upper section. Edge erosion is visible, though this has also been colonised by plants in
places indicating it may not be severe. Canada geese graze the marsh. Deadwood on the foreshore provides an additional habitat.

Opposite the buoy is a larger but heavily degraded stretch of marsh on the left bank. The intact sections of marsh holds a diverse short sward community, presumably grazed by geese. There are many standing pools containing a dense array of small invertebrate burrows. Large sections of the marsh have collapsed due to undercutting of edges and recent block collapse in places, but Bolboschoenus stands persist on some of the islands and lower sections which smooth out into mudflat areas.

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Figure 3: 40 ft off, left bank when facing downstream. View across the largest intact section of marsh, there are
frequent standing pools and small channels throughout the marsh A phragmites stand is visible on another section of the marsh.

Fleet Milly quarry is a an historic tidal creek of the estuary, blocked off with a seawall to become a freshwater lagoon but recently breached and presently reverting to its original tidal conditions,  bounded by a wall and a breached sluice.

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Figure 4: Fleet Mill Quarry. Taken from the wall. Pictured here are the paddlesteamer occuppied by marsh
vegetation, a stand of trees at the edge of the wall and a fairly bare mudflat in the tidal pool. Towards the back of the pool is a Phragmites bed.

This large area of now predominantly intertidal mudflat has an uncertain history due to contradictory or vague records. It is possible that a marsh existed c1900 over this extent, due to the blocking of an open channel originally here in the 1800s. Aerial photography shows more remaining patches and muddy outlines of the aforementioned lost marsh. The remaining marsh is in a few small fragments.

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Figure 5: The Gut. Lower section from Sharpham point wall to the edge of the historic marsh section of The Gut.

This area of saltmarsh is likely an ancient marsh, which was mapped in 1843 as saltmarsh. A stone revetment (c19th century) borders the edge of the marsh, which is met by the broad, shallow mudflat. The upper edge of the marsh is lined by a steeper incline and a line of trees. The vegetation is mainly dominated by short sward Festuca marsh, which is grazed by Canada Geese. Closer to the woodland edge is a strip of Elymus repens marsh.

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Figure 6: Sharpham point marsh. Visible here are some of the pools and patches of Bolboschoenus marsh

At the upstream reaches of Stoke Gabriel, there is a small narrow strip of saltmarsh bordering the millpool. A footpath follows through this area of predominantly short sward marsh and across a small stream. There are patches of Bolbochoenus marsh and the foreshore is colonised by a small stand of Spartina. Along the edges of the stream are species associated with fresher conditions such as Wild Celery.

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Figure 7: Millpool, townward section of marsh has experience compaction and erosion from footfall. This may be improved by path maintenance.

Below the millpool weir is a small section of saltmarsh at the bottom of the South Downs Wood. This includes a shallow muddy to gravel bank and a large, steep bank of red gravel within which the marsh is nestled. A dense stand of Atriplex portulacoides sits at the edge of the gravel, and a small channel cuts through the mud of the saltmarsh, leading towards a longer strip of Spartina, and short sward Puccinellia marsh.

There is little evidence of damage from boat landing, though further erosion of the marsh from landing and footfall could be limited by improving path access leading to the gravel bank instead.

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Figure 8: South downs wood. The gravel bank is an unusual feature which currently supports a dense stand of Atriplex portulacoides. This is likely a popular place to sit or haul boats ashore.