Wicken Fen Vision Marks 10th Anniversary in 2009

Space to breathe for people and wildlife
Space to think about our planet and our future
Space to explore on foot, bike, horse or boat

The Wicken Fen Vision, the most ambitious project undertaken by the National Trust in lowland England will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2009.

Launched in 1999 the Wicken Fen Vision is an ambitious 100 year project by the National Trust to create a landscape scale nature reserve and green lung for Cambridgeshire and the East of England, covering 56 sq km, to the North of Cambridge. The Vision will see the re-creation of a mosaic of fenland habitats to help protect and conserve endangered species of wildlife whilst providing a vast area for public access for leisure, relaxation, exercise and education.

Major milestones achieved in the first ten years of the Vision include:- · Land under conservation management has more than doubled to 755 hectares · Over £5 Million raised via private donations, Government / European grants and lottery awards · Over 8000 species now resident at Wicken Fen and the wider Vision lands including 121 species listed as rare and endangered in the UK's Red Data Books · The return of Otter, Water vole and the rediscovery of the Crucifix Ground Beetle after an absence of 50 years. · Bitterns, one of the UK's most elusive wetland birds breeding at Wicken Fen for the first time since the 1930s. · Significant progress towards the completion of an 18km spine route providing virtually traffic free access through the Vision lands enhancing public access to the countryside · Progress to the recreation of a mosaic of fenland habitats including floodplain grazing marsh, sedge meadows, dry grassland, wet woodland, eutrophic standing water and reed beds · Establishment of an extensive grazing programme using herds of wild Konik ponies and Highland Cattle · Extensive public consultation and support for the Wicken Fen Vision with over 83% of respondents supporting the National Trust Vision in a recent public consultation . · Creation of a User Forum representing individual user groups such as walkers, cyclists, horse riders, anglers, bird watchers, naturalists to advise the Trust on user requirements as the Vision develops.

Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve was the first nature reserve owned by the fledging National Trust when it acquired two acres of land in 1899, a unique remnant of the Great Fen which once covered much of East Anglia. Throughout the 20th Century, the draining of the Fens meant that Wicken Fen became an island in a sea of intensive agriculture whose very existence and that of the wildlife it supports came under threat of extinction. The ambitious and far sighted response by the National Trust was the creation of the Wicken Fen Vision in 1999.

By purchasing and returning agricultural land to nature conservation wildlife restricted to Wicken Fen will have space to expand whilst new species will gradually colonise the new habitats. The early signs are extremely encouraging, Otters and Water Vole have returned to the reserve, Barn owls, Hen and Marsh Harriers are regularly seen over the reserve and Bitterns one of the UK's rarest and most elusive wetland birds have nested at Wicken Fen for the first time since the 1930's.

The Vision is not all about wildlife but people too. The Cambridgeshire Sub Region is one of the fastest growing regions in the United Kingdom, with provision for 47,500 homes to be built by 2016, with the population expected to increase by 130,000 from its current level of 425,000 in the next 20 years, in a county with less than half the national average of accessible countryside. A consultation exercise conducted earlier this year indicated overwhelming public support for the Vision with 9 out of 10 respondents citing the opportunity to experience peace and quiet and the chance to get away from the pressures of everyday life as the main attraction of the countryside.

Public access to the countryside is at the heart of the Vision. The Wicken Fen Spine Route will provide an 18km virtually traffic free access route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders from Anglesey Abbey and Waterbeach in the South to Wicken Fen in the North. The construction of two bridges over local waterways which have previously prevented access will create a vast network of trails and circular paths for the public to explore. The Spine Route will also complete the missing link in the Sustrans National Cycle Route 11, which links Cambridge to Ely.

The Wicken Fen Vision will also provide significant environmental benefits. The creation of new freshwater habitats will to some extent help mitigate for the potential loss of coastal freshwater habitat in East Anglia expected as a result of rising sea levels due global warming. The Vision also offers scope for flood alleviation through the temporary storage of flood waters, particularly from the River Cam.

The peaty Fenland soils are one of nature's ways of storing carbon. Intensive agriculture throughout the Vision lands has lead to extensive depletion of the peat soils, with the peat likely to be completely in some areas within 20 years. Research for the National Trust indicates that soil lost within the Vision area over the last couple of hundred years equates to approximately 101.5 million tonnes of CO². It is envisaged that management of the land for conservation, particularly wetland habitat will enable the peat soils to re-generate and hence assist carbon sequestration and in some small way help in the fight against global warming.

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Notes to Editors

1. The Wicken Fen Vision is being developed by the National Trust in association with a number of strategic partners including, Cambridgeshire County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridge City Council, Department for Communities and Local Government, East of England Development Agency, Cambridgeshire Horizons, Greater Cambridge Partnership, Environment Agency, Natural England, Sustrans, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Tubney Charitable Trust and Heritage Lottery Fund.

2. The National Trust is Europe's biggest conservation organisation and looks after special places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland for ever, for everyone. People and places are at the heart of everything it does. 3.5 million members, 50,000 volunteers, 500,000 school children, and millions of visitors, donors and supporters help the Trust look after its 300 historic houses and gardens, 700 miles of coastline and 250,000 hectares of open countryside. www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

Further Information For further information please or to arrange a visit to Wicken Fen please contact: Howard Cooper, Communications Officer, Wicken Fen Tel 01353 720274 Mobile 07826 874133 or e-mail howard.cooper@nationaltrust.org.uk