Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

9.1 Scope for fen creation
The Great Fen project is a good example of the kind of wetland creation
promoted through the 50-year Wetland Vision project, which will also
contribute to UK BAP targets. The aim of the project is to restore,
buffer and link two NNRs (Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen) south of
Peterborough that cannot otherwise sustain their interest. Areas within
the Great Fen project will also play a role in storing floodwater.
Scope for fen creation is determined by:
– topography
– hydrology
– hydrochemistry
– substratum characteristics
– substratum fertility
– climate
– surrounding land-uses
– legal constraints such as flight safeguarding and planning permissions
– financial resources
– requirements of local community and landowners.
Availability of suitable land is often a limiting factor, which is why the majority of fen
creation is part of a mosaic of other wetland habitats within a larger area or scheme.
Examples of opportunities for fen creation which may arise include:
– sale of farmland as it comes on to the market, (e.g. parts of Potteric Carr near
Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and the Great Fen Project in Cambridgeshire);
– managed re-alignment of coastal defences (e.g. Alkborough Flats, Humberside),
especially for brackish fens;
– inland flood risk management schemes (e.g. River Teviot near Hawick in the
Scottish Borders, and the River Lossie in Nairn);
– restoration of mineral extraction sites, especially peat extraction (for example
Ham Wall in Somerset), sand and gravel workings (e.g. at Hatfield in South
Yorkshire and Needingworth Quarry, Cambridgeshire); some quarries (e.g. Dry
Rigg Quarry in the Yorkshire Dales National Park) or former colliery workings
(e.g. Bleak House, Staffordshire) (see Meade & Wheeler 2007 and Roberts &
Elliott 2007).
Obtaining funding for fen creation may have to be combined with other schemes
which meet specific criteria, such as the creation of reedbeds for bitterns or
swallowtail butterflies and other BAP priority species.
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