Catfield and Sutton Fens are two really special places. They are home to a remarkable number of rare and threatened species: 109 Red Data Book species including well over 90% of the UK population of the endangered Fen Orchid.
Readers of this blog will know that I’m very fond of these sites (see here). Their importance means that we take our management responsibility very seriously indeed (in the case of Catfield, on behalf of the owners Butterfly Conservation). But, like so many of the sites that we manage, not everything is in our control.
Recent events have served to illustrate the vulnerability of these sites that are tucked away in the heart of the Norfolk Broads. A vulnerability that ought to grab the attention of anyone interested in preventing further declines of already threatened species.
Sutton Fen, Ben Hall rspb-images.com
Over the next month or so the Environment Agency will decide whether to grant two new abstraction license renewals adjacent to the sites. Allowing local land owners to continue to take large volumes of water from this wetland haven will pose a very real threat to the fen and some of the UK’s rarest species that make a home there. A dramatic, single decision that will no doubt get attention and something we are primed and ready to fight if we need to.
However, whilst this unfolding drama will grab the headlines, a more subtle but insidious story can often be overlooked. In addition to the threat of water abstraction, since 2010 Catfield and Sutton Fens have been experiencing the impact of a more subtle menace, known in the business as ‘diffuse pollution’. This is when surface water runs off agricultural land after heavy rainfall, washing farmland soils into the fen. Sediments loaded with nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate flood the delicately balanced natural environment, encouraging the growth of common species such as reed and willow, at the expense of smaller, rarer flowering species such as orchids.
Water, laden with sediment, doesn’t have much oxygen in it, which can also make it difficult for invertebrates to survive. Imagine if you were one of the rare water beetles making a home on the site, the crystal clear oxygen rich water that you are used to turns to an orange, chemical filled soup.
Last week, the latest chapter in this second story was written. After a night of heavy rainfall, sediment filled water coursed into Catfield and Sutton Fens. The team tells me that by day 2, 1.5 hectares of SSSI had been affected. By day 3 this had gone up to 3 hectares. Beyond this area, I am led to believe that the chemicals are likely to still be having an impact up to 2 km away and it is very likely as winter weather sets in this kind of event will continue to happen, causing yet more damage. My colleagues were pleased to see the Environment Agency staff on site just hours after we reported this event as a formal pollution incident.
Since 2010, when the team discovered this new threat to these rich wetland sites, colleagues have spent time and money putting in water control structures, ditch management and the placement of reedbeds as filtration systems to help lessen the impacts. They have now reached a point where they have done all they can, and now look to the Environment Agency and Natural England to investigate the issue thoroughly and take all appropriate steps to mitigate any further impacts. In 2013 they recognised that there was a real problem, and we hope that these recent events will catalyse action.
We can see some simple measures that can improve the situation, such as ensuring that basic soil protection measures are enforced. All we can do now is wait to see the category of severity the Environment Agency assign to this case. This guides the work they will do to take action to protect the abundant and rare wildlife found across Catfield and Sutton Fens from similar events in future.
My visit to Catfield and Sutton Fens has been one of my highlights of 2014. They are fragile and special places. I am left with the overwhelming feeling that two of the most special fens in western Europe deserve far better and we should be more proactive in dealing with the threats they face. That's why I am going to keep a close eye on what happens next. I hope to be able to provide an update on the actions that Environment Agency and Natural England propose in the coming weeks.
Protecting these wildlife havens is so important because there are so very few of these high quality sites left. Most have been ruined by man one way or the other. Because of their rarity it should really be a "no brainer" for the EA and NE to ensure that insidious pollution and loss of water does not occcur under any circumstances whatsoever.
Unfortunately there are those and there are many of them,who would ruin places like Sutton and Catfield Fens without giving it too much thought, so the RSPB is totally right in watching this situation like a "hawk" to make sure these Government Agencies do the right thing and do not buckle under commercial and political pressures