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Reed and Sedge Industry

For many decades, crops of reed and sedge were harvested from the fens as part of a productive rural economy. However, particularly since the Second World War, the reed and sedge industry has been in decline in the Broads. At the turn of the century, it became apparent that the industry had reached a crisis, with only 12-15 cutters remaining. Of these, over half were already beyond or close to retirement age.

For some years before this, there had been a general acceptance that this decline was inevitable owing to factors beyond the cutters' control, such as the arduous nature of the work, and the cheap price of imported reed.

In November 2001, one of the remaining commercial cutters spoke out on behalf of the industry and claimed that a relatively small sum of money could reverse the decline in the industry, and insisted that there are young people, who, given the right opportunity, would like to make a career out of cutting reed and sedge.

Since winter 2002, the reed and sedge industry in the Broads has turned a corner and is now stable and recovering.

Rejuvenating the industry

In July 2002, we commissioned a consultant to undertake an investigation into the decline of the reed and sedge industry, and to consider the feasibility of its rejuvenation. The study identified a number of factors that have contributed to the decline of the industry, and made a series of recommendations for its rejuvenation.

Since then, significant action has been taken to achieve this, including:

• Formation of an Association of Reed and Sedge Cutters, who now have a collective voice in the region
• Successful applications for two rounds of funding from our Sustainable Development Fund
• Successful applications for two rounds of match funding from the Broads and Rivers Leader Plus Project
• Annual or more regular meetings between the cutters and conservation organisations to investigate ways of working more closely together, and to resolve areas of potential conflicts.
The rejuvenation of the commercial reed and sedge industry is an ongoing process, but one that has support of the cutters themselves, the Broads Authority, English Nature, local conservation organisations and the wider public. Through a process of initial grant investment and initiatives to identify more options for income, we hope that the industry will recover fully, and continue to make a significant and valued contribution to fen management.

Measures of success include new younger people becoming reed and sedge cutters (two joined the industry in 2004); and an increase in the area of fen managed commercially from 200 to 400 hectares (approximately 25% of the fen resource).

The new Environmental Stewardship scheme offers incentives to land managers for commercial reed and sedge cutting.

Modern-day reed and sedge cutters largely use pedestrian-driven reciprocating mowers to harvest their crop. Bundles of material are then tied and removed from site (often by boat) ready for sale to local thatchers.

Although commercial cutting can remove large blocks of vegetation, many sites are cut in small patches, often avoiding very wet or unstable areas. This ensures that some tall vegetation is left standing as habitat for associated plants, insects, birds and mammals.

Commercial reed

This is typically taken from areas where it is the dominant, if not the sole plant. For reed (Phragmites australis) to be considered of commercial quality for thatching, it must reach certain levels of strength, shape and height. Areas are cut on either an annual cycle (single wale) or biennially (double wale). The latter is favoured for conservation, as it allows a rotation in which some areas are cut, and some are uncut each year, so providing a refuge for birds and invertebrates.

Commercial sedge

Commercial sedge (Cladium mariscus) is cut every four or five years. This rotation is ideal for both the commercial interest of the crop and for conservation. For most fen plants communities, a four or five year mowing regime has been shown to be optimal. If the sedge is left much longer than this, the sedge beds become non-commercial and the rank growth and accumulation of plant litter also shades out some of the smaller and interesting associated plant species.

Advantages of commercial cutting

• An outlet exists for the product resulting in removal of material from site making it a more cost-effective form of fen management, and avoiding the need for burning or piling on site.
• Areas are often managed by one or two people resulting in low amounts of people-pressure on the fen and a low level of disturbance.
• Small size of machinery means that access to small, isolated sites is often possible.
• The same people manage the same areas and so over time develop detailed site knowledge and sensitivity.

Disadvantages of commercial cutting

• Short rotations for reed cutting are not always ideal for enhancing the conservation interest of site.
• Compaction - pedestrian mowers and the people who drive them exert certain pressure on the surface and substrate of the fen; the impacts of this are unknown.
• All mowing techniques can cause damage to tussock-rich sites as the vegetation is cut at one height, so cutting through tussocks.

Conservation mowing

A significant proportion of fen is managed by conservation mowing - mowing purely for habitat management. One such method involves the use of pedestrian-driven mowing machines, which cut and leave the standing vegetation. This cut material is then gathered and piled or burned so that none is left lying on the fen. This method, particularly the collecting and disposing of material, is very labour intensive.