Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

The most extensive fen management has been carried out on floodplains, and to a
lesser extent valley mires, particularly in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. Although
basin fens, water-fringe fens and spring-fed fens are usually managed, they occupy
a much smaller area. Consequently there are fewer or less extensive examples of
different vegetation management techniques to draw from in respect of these types
of fen. Most of the techniques described below are nevertheless easily transferable
to other areas.
6.2 Grazing
Controlled grazing of fens by livestock is effectively an extension of a natural process,
and can be a valuable fen management conservation tool. Grazing can help:
– Maintain open species-rich fen communities by reducing plant biomass;
– Control scrub invasion to maintain or restore open habitat;
– Contribute to the diverse wetland surface in terms of structure and species
composition;
– Keep the effects of nutrient enrichment in check by removing vegetation biomass
and preventing the dominance of nutrient-demanding species, or reducing the
development of scrub and wood on sites that are drying out (and therefore have
increased mineralisation rates).
Re-establishment of grazing, especially by cattle, can reverse the successional
process and also suppress (though not prevent) scrub encroachment by cropping
seedlings or by taking off the re-growth from cut stumps.
102
Short open speciesrich
fen with lesser
water parsnip (Berula
erecta) maintained by
light grazing
(B. Hamill).
Grazing should generally be considered as the first option over any other
form of management:
– where a fen has been grazed in the past but grazing has stopped for
some reason;
– where there is no history of mowing/cutting and where it is possible to
introduce grazing to a fen site to inhibit succession;
– where selective removal of vegetation has been identified as the most
appropriate form of management.