As part of the advanced seawall at Højer, built in 1979-1981, a marsh foreland, 150 m

wide and sloping from +2.45 m DNN to +0.20-0.30 m DNN, was designed. The aim

was to provide protection of the seawall and to create a green environment as a replacement

of the salt marsh areas, which would be lost between this and the old

seawall. The foreland was founded by marine sand, and the innermost part was

sown with grasses. To enhance sedimentation, a coherent row of sedimentation fields

was established along the foreland in 1986-1988. The development of the foreland

has been monitored with irregular intervals since 1981. In this paper I present observations

of changes in profile and vegetation, and I compare the state of the foreland

in 2004 with mature marsh forelands.

The main trends observed so far have been: 1) the species richness of vascular

plants has increased, 2) Glasswort (Salicornia) and Common Cord-Grass (Spartina)

have established widely on tidal flats in the sedimentation fields, 3) At the inner part

of the tidal flat a Common Salt-Marsh-Grass (Puccinellia maritima) salt marsh has

gradually established, 4) the foreland landwards to the tidal flat has currently been

narrowed by erosion, but has also been influenced by sand accretion, 5) the vegetation

of the outer part of the foreland is still open and characterized by beach and

dune species, 6) the vegetation of the inner part of the foreland is slowly developing

towards a typical Wadden Sea high marsh.

In conclusion, the planned foreland has not yet been achieved after 23 years, and

the development of the foreland has differed somewhat from what was originally

expected. This is probably caused by the circumstance that the advanced seawall was

built on a relatively low-lying tidal flat. The vegetation zonation developed so far

indicates, however, that a typical marsh foreland may be formed along the advanced

seawall during the coming decades on the basis of the technical support carried out

until now and a continuation of the current management of the foreland. Establishment

of extra brushwood groynes