Most of the building material for the Marker Wadden Project comes from Lake Markermeer itself. Cutter dredges sucked up silt, sand and clay from the muddy bottom and deposited it layer on layer and the islands emerged from the water only a few months after work started in 2016.

Phase one covered the creation of five islands with a carefully designed layout of sandbanks, ridges, marshlands, creeks and shallow water pools. Reet was planted to further improve the stability of the sediments .

Mother Nature wasted no time and soon the first wild plants appeared, small fish and plankton populated the shallow waters and thousands of birds showed up.

By the end of September 2017 about 90 species of birds were counted and Common Tern, Clod and Plovers had even successfully bred here.

On the main island a harbor, footpaths, a watchtower and several birdwatching facilities were constructed.
 In September 2018 Marker Wadden was officially opened to the public 

On the last day of that month we were one of the first to visit this new, fully man-made nature reserve.