Fenland Nature

Beneath their huge and spectacular skies, the Fenlands of East Anglia are in dynamic flux. Emerging as dense woodland from the retreating glaciers of the last ice age, the forests were drenched beneath a rising water table to become a vast, impenetrable wetland teeming with life. These swamps were inhospitable to most but provided refuge for rebels, outcasts and warriors such as Boudicca and Hereward the Wake. Now this wet wilderness has, over the last centuries of the millennium, been irreversibly and drastically tamed.

At its finest, the biodiversity here was comparable to tropical rainforests. The drainage of the Fens was an ecological disaster but within their tiny remnants there are still opportunities to connect with that lost world. Season by season, this book documents, with stunning photographs and insightful text, the intense ecological richness in these pockets of ancient fen, alongside the wildlife spectacles that draw thousands of visitors to the seasonal wetlands of the Ouse and Nene Washes.

As the ancient peat soils turn to dust after a century of intensive farming, the future of the Fens pivots on rising sea levels, agricultural pressures and visions of rewilding. The dramatic changes to the ecology of the Fens represent on a national scale the same issues that face communities and ecosystems the world over. At yet another crossroads in its history, Fenland Nature offers a portal into the hidden wonders of this unique, challenging and complex landscape – while turning our gaze to its future.

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