A Paper prepared by Dr Laurie Friday, Local Management Committee Chairman,

dated June 1999

1. Summarv

At an Extraordinary meeting of the Regional Committee at Wicken Fen on 27 November 1998 the Committee supported the principle of the draft Vision Statement for Wicken Fen which encapsulated an Acquisition Policy for the next hundred years. This was subject to further research being carried out. This report and the presentation at the Regional Committee meeting updates the Committee on the findings of this research.

2. Background to the Project

(this is an extract from an essay by Laurie Friday and Adrian Colston submitted for publication in British Wildlife in 1999).

Can this area be returned to its former state? In the short term, the answer is no, because the land is still actively cultivated. However, in the long term, over the next century or so, it may become possible. As the peat soils become ever thinner and the engineering feats required to maintain their drainage ever more demanding, the economic viability of such a project is likely to increase. The need to re-create inland wetlands will also become more urgent as coastal wetland reserves, such as Cley, Titchwell, Blakeney, Holme and parts of Minsmere, become increasingly vulnerable to changes in sea level.

Such a plan may be ecologically viable, because the former fen area is a low-lying natural catchment underpinned by gault clay. It is supplied by two main sources of water: rainwater, and calcareous water issuing from the chalk ridge at its junction with the clay. In winter these water supplies are in excess, but in summer they are in deficit relative to evapotranspiration rates. The surplus winter rainwater is currently pumped away via the `low level' system of drains into the River Cam at Upware and most of the chalk ground water is conducted away via the lode system. By reducing drainage, it should be possible to create a mosaic of habitats: shallow reedy waters in the natural hollows of the former drainage system; expanses of open grassland on the silt ridges; and, in the higher areas nearer the chalk ridge, scrubby grassland. Control over the water table would have to be retained to prevent flooding or erosion of the lode banks.

Reclamation projects of this type have been carried out with resounding success in the Netherlands, where large tracts of intensively cultivated arable land have been turned into fen landscapes. Sites such as Oostvadersplassen and Lauwersmeer on the Dutch coast demonstrate that fen communities can be re-created on a large scale within a few years and can be maintained as a rich patchwork of vegetation types by extensive grazing by large herbivores such as deer, ponies and wild cattle.

By extending the boundaries of the fen from Wicken, we believe it would be possible to maintain many populations of fen flora and fauna over a wider area, so dissipating the risk of each species' extinction and making possible migration between populations. We hope also that the body of peat, which is Fenland's most precious resource, would again begin to grow after three centuries of loss.

3. Feasibility Study

The Wicken Fen Local Management Committee commissioned LEF to carry out a preliminary feasibility project, providing funding for a graduate research assistant, Mr Tom Moorhouse, for three months, with three main aims:

a. to investigate the geological, hydrological and human aspects of the area around Wicken Fen;

b. to set such a project in the context of local planning;

c. to review published information on the philosophy of habitat restoration and the practicalities of ecological restoration scheme.

This project is about 80% complete at 11 June 1999 and will run within budget.

Consultations have been held with the Swaffham Internal Drainage Board (the members of which are the landowners) and hydrologists at ra field University atilsbe College. The next phase involves discussion on water availability with the Environment Agency and on° the structure plans for Cambridgeshire County Council, District Council and Cambridge Futures.

The results of this project are being written up by LEF and are to be presented in a Report to the National Trust later in 1999. The Director-General has agreed to publication of some aspects of the study (including the introductory essay) for a wider audience ahead of that report. An interim report will be given in the form of a presentation at this meeting.

4. Conclusions

1. The 3,700 hectares of farmland to the south and east of Wicken Fen, formerly known as Swaffham aid Burwell Fens, is topographically, geologically and hydrologically suitable for reclamation as fen. At present, water levels are held at about 2.5m below sea-level (97.5m OD) and land levels lie between 1.5m below and 5m above sea level (98.5-105m OD).

2. Calcium-rich groundwater, suitable for fen restoration, is available from the chalk uplands running along the southern boundary of the area. Rainwater, currently pumped out of the system, is likely to be sufficient to achieve rewetting to between 99.5 and 100.5m OD. The area lies over a sheet of boulder clay and is edged on the river margin by flood defence banks. Control of water levels in the area must be maintained for flood defence. Should this plan proceed further, it is essential that hydrologists and drainage engineers be employed.

3. Although the simplest solution would be to raise water levels over the entire area simultaneously, the area could possibly be rewetted in four sections, each section being the land lying between the major waterways (`lodes'), if alternative means of pumping up the water from the low level drains into the high level lodes and river could be provided or each area.

4. Restoration of a fen system, with a patchwork of habitats ranging from open water through to scrub, according to topography, might be achieved within a decade or so once rewetting is achieved. Ongoing management would be very low-input, using large grazing animals.

5. The scheme depends on an extensive land acquisition policy; the area is a patchwork of holdings of about a dozen farmers, few of whom would be prepared to consider selling land at present and many of whom live in the area. They may consider selling land in future should economic and political forces make arable agriculture less viable and the difficulty of draining a shrinking land surface as sea level rises becomes ever greater. Any such acquisition policy would have to be on a timescale of several decades, say, over the next 100 years or more, Land acquired piecemeal could be held on low-input agricultural tenancies in the short-term to reduce the nutrient status of the soil and generate income 

6. It will be essential to establish and develop partnerships with the County and District Councils, the Environment Agency, the Internal Drainage Board and others. It is also important that the confidence and co-operation of landowners and residents is secured at an early stage, by dissemination of information and open dialogue.

7. Such a project is likely to complement various plans for the future development of Cambridgeshire, all of which envisage new settlements in and around the city, for which a large open space with attractive walks would provide a valuable amenity.