Restoring a degraded coastal grazing marsh at Lower Raypits, south Essex. Essex Wildlife Trust's reserve of Lower Raypits is located on the south bank of the Crouch estuary adn teh site covers 143ha in total, including intertidal mudflats, saltmarsh and seawall habitats within the Crouch & Roach Estuaries SSSI, Ramsar and SPA. A key habitat within the site is coastal grazing marsh (38ha), although this was much degraded. The fields at Lower Raypits were agriculturally improved grassland and much too dry, and the corresponding value of these for nature conservation was low.