Celebrate World Wetlands Day at Wicken Fen

Two of Cambridgeshire's leading landscape restoration projects, the National Trust's Wicken Fen Vision and the Great Fen Project are joining together to celebrate International World Wetlands Day on Tuesday 2 February.

International World Wetlands Day marks the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, known as the Ramsar Convention in 1971. The convention is an intergovernmental treaty that provides a framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetland resources. Wicken Fen and Woodwalton Fen - in the Great Fen Project area - are both included on the list of 1874 wetland sites worldwide designated as of 'International Importance'.

Sunset over Bakers Fen

To celebrate World Wetlands Day the public are being offered free admission to Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve, near Ely, Cambridgeshire on Tuesday 2 February. Besides free admission, there will be a full programme of guided walks, cycle rides, talks and exhibitions and displays on the Wicken Fen Vision and the Great Fen Project, near Peterborough.

The wetland habitats of Wicken and Woodwalton Fens are a small but unique remnant of the Great Fen Basin which once covered the lowlands of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, an area of approximately 3,850 sq.km. Since the 17th Century the vast majority of this land area has been drained for intensive agriculture, with the result that less than 1.0% of the original wetland habitat survives today.

In recent years the National Trust and the Great Fen partnership (the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough, the Environment Agency, Huntingdonshire District Council, the Middle Level Commissioners and Natural England) have launched ambitious and far sighted landscape restoration projects that will cover a combined area of 8300 hectares to protect and conserve endangered species of wildlife whilst at the same time creating a vast area of countryside for public access and recreation. Rare species such as the bittern, hen harrier, otter, water vole, dragonflies and plants such as the fen violet will have an improved chance of survival thanks to these wetland restoration projects.

Dr Francine Hughes of Anglia Ruskin University is leading a major research project into species spread as a result of the restoration of wetland habitats at both projects. According to Dr Hughes in only a relatively short time period there is clear evidence of the benefits for biodiversity:

"Common cranes and avocets are among the exciting new species using the expanded wetland areas. Specialist species from the National Nature Reserves will take longer to colonise but meadow rue, a plant of wet grasslands and nationally scarce water beetle species have already jumped the gap."

The re-creation of inland wetlands will also help mitigate for the loss of coastal freshwater habitat due to rising sea levels as a result of global warming.

The Wicken Fen Vision is a 100 year project by the National Trust to create a landscape scale nature reserve and 'green lung' for Cambridge stretching from the existing Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve to the outskirts of Cambridge, covering an area of 5300 hectares. The development of a Spine Route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders linking Wicken to Anglesey Abbey/Bottisham with onward connections to Ely and Cambridge will open up a vast network of paths and trails throughout the Vision lands.

The Great Fen Project will create 3,700 hectares of new wetland habitat between Huntingdon and Peterborough. This will be achieved, by land purchase or partnership working with landowners, of land adjacent to the two existing National Nature Reserves: Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen. Connecting these two vitally important nature reserves will provide a haven for wildlife and create a massive green space for people, opening new opportunities for tourism, recreation, education and business.

Programme of activities for the World Wetlands Day

Exhibition (Wren Building) - Wicken Fen Vision, Great Fen Project, Cambridge and Peterborough Biodiversity Partnership, Middle Level Commissioners and Environment Agency.

0900 - 1400 Bird Ringing Demonstration

1100 - 1230 Guided Walk - Adventurer's / Bakers Fen

1100 - 1145 Talk Wicken Fen Vision

1145 - 1230 Talk - The Great Fen Project

1330 - 1430 Wicken Fen Vision /Great Fen Project - Landscape Restoration
Monitoring Project

1430 - 1600 Guided Walk - Ecology of Sedge Fen