Gazen Salts Nature Reserve will not be re-opening any time soon, said the warden Karen Potter.

The nature reserve, which was flooded during the tidal surge in December last year, is still struggling with the after-effects of the five-foot deep salt water which covered the area for more than six weeks.

Now Ms Potter has said they will be unable to re-open for a considerable time despite their best efforts.

But she remains optimistic about the future. Ms Potter said: “It’s going to be a considerable time before we can re-open, we want to make sure when we do re-open it will be safe.

“The trees that we thought were probably okay or hadn’t shown signs of damage, a lot of them have died back. This will be because the water was so salty.”

She believes the reserve has lost 450 trees – a quarter of the number that has been at the man made reserve for nearly 10 years.

She added: “We have put together a three-year scheme which will probably cost £120,000.

“We’re doing everything that we can in getting the reserve back to its former glory as soon as possible and have already managed to raise £10,500 in funds and £2,000 of that was from the local community. I’m so grateful to the people who have donated.”

The nature reserve is a registered charity and therefore needs all the help it can get in raising funds to fix the flood damage and restore the space for the public.

Flood defence work is taking place around the river which runs through the site. It will raise the bank, preventing repeats of the flooding the area saw in December.

The work will be completed by the end of the month.

Ms Potter added: “No one wants to see this repeated, but I do think it was a one-off.”

Now the focus is on getting the reserve open again and preserving what still remains.

She added: “We’re doing everything that we can to raise the money and we will continue monitoring the trees and there will be opportunity to replant and making other areas even better than they were before.”

To donate please send a cheque payable to Gazen Salts Nature Reserve to the Guildhall, Cattle Market, Sandwich.