Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

– 14km of livestock fencing installed, along with handling units and piped water
troughs. Breeding herd of konik ponies brought onto site from Poland in 1995
to extensively graze the fen, along with beef cattle and Hebridean sheep.
Adjacent ‘enriched’ land was acquired and managed to reduce nutrients. This
land is also being converted into a transitional, higher quality habitat between
wet fen and dry surrounding margin.
Restoration work underway at
Redgrave and Lopham Fen
Monitoring and review of outcomes
Groundwater recovery has been astonishing and complex in its development. The
site is now predominantly wet year-round, with the mean water table lying within
the target level for re-establishment of target fen vegetation types identified in the
Habitats Directive.
The outcome of recent management has shown exceptional botanical species
recovery, with over 300 plant species having been recorded since restoration.
These were recorded through an NVC resurvey of the site and monitoring of
permanent quadrats. Of particular note has been the return of insectivorous
plant species formerly associated with the site (common bladderwort, common
butterwort and round leaved sundew), wet heath assemblages (comprising several
Sphagnum moss species and cross-leaved heath), brown-moss communities in
spring flushes, charophyte carpets in newly-created turf ponds (seven species on
site – of European significance) and the re-establishment of saw sedge-dominated
swards over former ranges.
The fen raft spider population has survived and has shown small but significant
population range expansion on the fen. Recent translocation of captively-bred
cloned spiders intends to encourage the species to occupy its former range on the
reserve, prior to water abstraction.
There are now 21 dragonfly species associated with the reserve. Otter have
returned to the river, and the fen is now a key national site for water voles. Species
such as water violet now grow within the river channel (an almost unimaginable
sight a few decades ago).
Detailed monitoring of water quality in the catchment has been undertaken,
including monitoring of peak flow events following storms or prolonged rainfall. The
water quality is now excellent within the fen, with almost undetectable nutrient levels
within the turf ponds.
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