What conservation work does NWT do across Norfolk?

Those venturing into the Broads during the winter months are likely to hear the muffled hum and buzz of machinery. This is often accompanied by plumes of puffy white smoke raising up from behind a line of trees. This is a busy time for both Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Broadland staff, and many of the local reed-harvesters.  

Where suitable, and access allows, reed is cut and processed for commercial sale for thatching. On NWT reserves reed is also cut, but more often as part of our conservation work, which follows a prescribed management plan that helps us create a rich mosaic of wetland habitats.  

Wildlife conservation can, at times, seem rather contradictory. Large sections of the Broads’ vast reedbeds, which harbour an array of wildlife, are cut down and burnt each winter. Trees and scrub are felled in one place and then saplings planted in another. In the Brecklands, rabbits and sheep are seemingly allowed to gnaw the vegetation to almost bare ground, meadows are mowed and in our woodland reserves trees are coppiced. In short, our wildlife lives in a managed landscape, and has done for thousands of years. Without intervention, our ancient and manipulated countryside would lose much of its biodiversity.  

During the reed harvesting and scrub clearance season I’m frequently approached about the work we carry out, with some people enquiring upon our methods. The feeling is often that it appears rather harsh on the local environment. Although seemingly agricultural in nature, much of our land management follows traditional practices, emulating the manner in which meadows, woodlands and fens were sustainably administered during past centuries.   

The animals and plants that colonised the British Isles after the last Ice Age found a very different place in comparison to today’s landscapes. Rivers, unrestricted, flooded across vast plains in winter, our now near bare hills and mountains were covered in scrubby woodland and a band of heath ran behind shifting coastal dune systems.  

Lowlands, such as the East Anglian Fenlands, were immense wetland landscapes brimming with wildfowl and waders. Wild boar created rides in the woodlands and beavers’ dams formed ponds rich in fish, amphibians and invertebrates. Wolves, lynx and brown bears patrolled the landscape.

As human influence grew, and the landscape altered due to farming and other activities, some species were able to adapt to the new habitats that were forming, a few even prospered, however many species were lost altogether.       

By the early part of the last century the pace of development had significantly quickened. With considerably fewer houses being thatched with local reed, lush wet meadows no longer needed for horse fodder, and better drainage systems installed, reedbeds and fen meadows either disappeared under agriculture, or through neglect were encroached by willow and alder scrub. It was during this period we lost the large copper butterfly, and very nearly the swallowtail butterfly too. There was a sharp decline in bittern, bearded tits, and a host of reed specialist insects.  

With the return of the current regime of reed harvesting, these species are now showing evidence of strong recovery. The crane, recently returned as a UK breeding bird, favours undisturbed patches of cut reed to settle and nest in. Milk parsley, the food plant of the swallowtail caterpillar grows strongest along cut reed fringes and many of our rarest plants, the fen orchid particularly, prospers on fens that are cut annually.   

Without a vast, dynamic landscape, the driving forces of nature have to be replicated on the remaining fragments that are entrapped and preserved on our nature reserves. Unless we return much of our landscape to a truly wild state, the careful and balanced management of our reserves through reed cutting and selected scrub clearance will always remain necessary.      

Great places to see Norfolk’s iconic reed and wetland wildlife 

NWT Upton Fen:  A tranquil haven in the heart of the Broads. As well as reed bed, the site has an impressive mix of habitat including alder carr, fen and grazing marsh. The reserve also supports ten nationally rare plant species including fen orchid.     

NWT Hickling Broad and Marshes: It is easy to spend a day walking around Hickling’s paths and trails. It has one of the largest reed beds in the UK, and wildlife includes bittern, crane, marsh harrier, swallowtail butterfly and Norfolk hawker dragonfly. In summer there is also wildlife water-trail boat tours.  

NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes: This is the oldest Wildlife Trust nature reserve in the UK, and remains one of the country’s most popular birdwatching sites famous for its long list of rare vagrant birds.  

NWT Ranworth Broad: Follow the boardwalk running through woodland and reed bed to the floating Broadlands Wildlife Centre.  The short walk gives visitors a taste of all the Broads wetland habitats. There is an array of fenland flowers, and it is a great place to spot swallowtail butterflies in early summer. A wildlife water-trail boat also operates from April to September.    

For more information, visit www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk