Never have so many voices sounded so quiet. It was obvious right from the start; Sutton Fen is a place that isn’t used to people. The low brick buildings of Longmoor farm crouch on the edge of the fen at the bottom of a meandering, high-hedged lane. They look like they are sheltering from something, backs hunched in to the wind, heavy doors closed, cow sheds empty. The warden comes out to greet me, blinking from the daylight streaming from vast skies as he steps from his solitary porta-cabin office. I’m here because I’m lucky. Lucky because I only live down the road to Sutton Fen and lucky that, because today I’m being given a tour of the place, something otherwise unavailable.
It would be easy to imagine that Sutton Fen is the last of the great untouched Broadland wildernesses. A grey heron at close-range veers out of eyeshot, great wing beats echoing on a windless morning and a coot chirrups from the watery depths of a silent dyke running the length of the rough grass meadow we walk across. Unlike Springtime, when the reeds are alive with sedge and reed warblers and the buzz of dragonflies, nothing else stirs. The dusty coloured tussocks of the fen stretch away towards the horizon and the newly dug ponds we have come to look at sit glassily on chocolate coloured peat. But Sutton wouldn’t be where it is today – a habitat of almost sacrosanct value – if it weren’t for the interjection of whole troops of supporting folk. Perhaps it isn’t so untouched after all.
Prior to Sutton Fen being managed by the RSPB it’s owner worked tirelessly with the Broads Authority to push back the encroaching waves of scrubby alder and rush to maintain and improve the fenland habitat struggling to thrive beneath. The Norfolk Wildlife Trust came to assiduously trim around rare plants as they emerged from their watery beds, trying to give them every chance of survival. Then Natural England stepped up to help return the fen to optimum condition.
Since then the RSPB have been helped unflinchingly by teams of volunteers, standing knee deep in smelly mud to rake reed, dig ponds and cut scrub, all to maintain Sutton at it’s richest, fertile best. Knowledgeable answers have been given to questions asked from near every expert that could be drawn upon; Pond Conservation, Environment Agency, Butterfly Conservation to name but a few. And where would we be without the money to fund all this work? Thanks to a grant from WREN this is what we, collectively, can do. We can bring together great minds, hard-working hands, and the quietest united front you could ever witness to encourage one of our most delicate and valuable habitats to thrive.