AN INNOVATIVE project has been launched to overcome one of the greatest threats facing a UN World Heritage Site.

The National Trust, which runs the gardens at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, near Ripon, said a £300,000 scheme to remove silt from the property's waterways had proved such a success that it hoped to replicate it at its other properties.

The gardens, described by UNESCO as "a true masterpiece of human creative genius", have been inundated with the fine granular material following storms since former Chancellor of the Exchequer John Aislabie created them in 1718.

Michael Ridsdale, head of landscape at the site said while the trust had spent nearly £3m on maintaining the ponds and canals since 1983 alone, heavy downpours often resulted in costly damage and flooding to the abbey as well as the garden, carrying tonnes of silt into it from the River Skell.

The traditional dredging solution has involved the waterways being drained and cleared during the summer months when water flow is at its lowest, a "messy and involved proccess" which trust managers fear spoils views for visitors during the site's busiest months.

The trust said since June Yorkshire-based company Ebsford Environmental had employed a new technique involving pneumatic pumps to filter the silt from the estate's the half moon reservoir into a collecting area in a nearby field, presenting a non-invasive, sustainable and affordable option for preserving the park.

The collecting tank, made entirely of biodegradable and re-usable materials, holds in excess of 8,000 cubic metres of silt which will dry out to form a cake ready for tenant farmer Andrew Leeming to use as a natural fertiliser.

Benefits of the technique also include that it is not invasive, so sensitive wildlife has not been disturbed at what UNESCO says is arguably England's most important 18th Century water garden.

A trust spokesman said: "Memories of the Studley Lake dredging project in 2010 conjured up scenes of mud, diggers and tractors, but this project has been completely the opposite.

"This project marks an important step forward in river management both inside and outside of the National Trust.

"It was an important consideration that the work be as self-contained and unobtrusive as possible.

"The ground-breaking work we’ve done this summer will transform the appearance of the reservoir, restoring that stunning vista of the abbey to inspire visitors for another couple of hundred years at least.”

The project will run until the end of September when attention will turn to the moon ponds in the heart of the water garden.