Poole Harbour Guide 2011 - Poole Harbour Commissioners

Protecting the Environment
Poole Harbour and its environs has long
been recognized both nationally and
internationally as being of high biological
importance and is one of the largest
examples of an estuary with an enclosed
lagoonal character in Britain.
The harbour is mostly shallow and contains
a high proportion of intertidal saltmarshes
and mudflats. These give way to freshwater
marshes, reed beds and wet grasslands on
low, poorly drained land above the tidal
level, and also transitions to heathland on
higher sandy ground and heathland mires in
small tributary valleys.
The wetland habitats fringing the Harbour
support large numbers of wintering,
migrating and breeding birds along with
many rare and uncommon plants and
invertebrates. The Harbour bed is important
for marine invertebrates such as sponges,
tube worms, sea squirts and sea mats,
including some that are rare around Britain’s
shoreline. Areas of heathland support further
rare and uncommon birds, invertebrates and
reptiles, while pine woodland on some of
the Harbour’s islands is of national
importance for some of England’s last
surviving populations of red squirrels.
The range of estuarine, wetland and
heathland habitats, their large extent and the
rare plants and animals they support,
together with the large variety and number
of birds, means Poole Harbour is recognized
as being of National and International
Poole Harbour Guide ~ 2011