‘A win for nature and people’: Elizabeth line soil used to create Essex bird haven

Brent geese take flight from a field on Wallasea in Essex. The island had been bereft of birds before the RSPB began creating a nature haven in the mid-2000s. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Almost 40,000 birds have made their home on a nature reserve created using soil from tunnel excavations for the Elizabeth line.

Three million tonnes of earth were transported from London to Wallasea island in Essex and used to lift the ground level and make wetlands.