Fen Restoration
Restoring fens that have become invaded by scrub and woodland is something of a technical challenge! Fens are wet and often treacherous places where large machinery can quickly become stuck and cause significant damage to this fragile environment.
Cutting scrub by hand is one solution, and this practice is still utilised. Broads Authority conservation volunteers and other volunteer groups, spend thousands of worker days per year cutting and clearing scrub from infested fen sites. For some sites, this is the only workable option, but it is extremely labour intensive and so only suitable for small areas.
As the scale of fen restoration has increased, so have new machines been designed to try and address larger scrub removal operations. Low ground pressure excavators, cutting machines and portable incinerators have all been developed and are enabling large areas of scrub to be restored to fen. Bittern II Project
Even large-scale scrub clearance however, should not result in the complete absence of woody species from the fen. All fen restoration projects leave a proportion of scrub within the fen to provide singing, roosting and nesting areas for birds, and important habitat for invertebrates.
Other techniques such as turf pond creation have also been used to restore fen habitat. Shallow peat diggings, or turf ponds, were dug in the Broads in Victorian times. Some were dug to provide fuel, while others may have been cut as a way of clearing fen to improve the quality of the reed and sedge harvest.
When these turf ponds were allowed to recolonise, they proved a rich source of diverse vegetation, and today the most species-rich areas tend to be found where turf ponds were once dug.
We started creating new turf ponds on a small scale in 1982. These were rapidly invaded by a range of aquatic and emergent species, and since then larger ponds have also been created. Many of these ponds were created in conjunction with scrub clearance, with the added benefit of reintroducing an earlier phase of succession - open water - into the fen environment.
Other restoration projects involve the recreation of fen habitat. The Bittern II project for example, is restoring a large area of fen on what was arable land. It is hoped that this restored area of fen will be visited by the bittern and other rare, water-loving creatures.
