High Fen Wildland

Until 2007, the land at High Fen was farmed for arable including daffodil growing. But despite the deep and peaty soils, it was too wet and difficult to farm commercially and was sold. The next owners together with Natural England did a fantastic job of transforming High Fen into a seasonally wet grassland, before selling it to Nattergal in December 2022. 

“At Nattergal, what we see is a species-rich site but with largely one habitat type. With a few tweaks, natural capital investment and the reinstatement of natural processes, we will deliver a unique and wonderful habitat mosaic and wetland system in the Fens.”

High Fen will offer wellness, eco-tourism, educational and research opportunities to provide opportunities for people as well as wildlife.

High Fen’s vision is to rewet the land for as much of the year as possible and to develop a far greater species richness. They imagine a mosaic of fenland habitats comprised of reed beds, willow carr and open meres. 

KICK-STARTING REWILDING

Working with the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, a project being delivered by the Centre of Hydrology and Ecology at the University of Cambridge, they have discovered that their species abundance is poor and concentrated around water. Getting more of the site wet for longer will allow species richness to spill out.

Beyond biodiversity, they have also measured the distribution and depth of their peatland, which urgently needs to be preserved as a vital carbon store. They have established that 40% of their wildland contains peat, which if left to dry out distributes carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Rewetting the peat and securing the storage of carbon dioxide is a major priority.