Green futures CANAPE and a new Broads Peat Partnership

Creating A New Approach to Peatland

Ecosystems

We’ve had the canape, the starter, the main event and now it’s time for afters – but don’t worry, they are everlasting afters…

From 2017-22, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund North Sea Region, the Broads Authority led a partnership of 14 organisations in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, to restore peatlands and develop wet farming, bringing economic benefits. Globally, peatlands store twice as much carbon as forests, helping to combat the effects of climate change.

Restoration

For the Broads part of the CANAPE project, we carried out restoration work at Hickling Broad (above) on the River Thurne, building on previous restoration projects and working with the owner of the broad, Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Almost 31,000 cubic metres of sediment was dredged from the navigation channel and used to recreate a hectare of lost reed swamp at Chara Bay. Deepening the channel improves clearance for boat propellers, reducing suspended sediment, and making the water clearer and better for aquatic life. The reed acts as a filter, improving water quality by absorbing excess nutrients, which have a negative impact on much wildlife. We hope the reed swamp will provide a sheltered area of water for plants such as stoneworts and holly-leaved naiad. In the UK, some of these plants are so rare that they only grow in the Upper Thurne area.

Wet farming

This uses wet peatlands to grow plants that are adapted to wet conditions. It’s traditional in the Broads, where reed has been grown for hundreds of years for thatch. However, over 95% of the UK’s thatching reed is imported from China and Eastern Europe, so we want to grow more. But we need other products as well. We investigated using reed for compost, reedmace for fibreboard and clothing insulation material (which can fill jackets or duvets), and used waste wood from scrub clearance to produce biochar (a soil improver) and charcoal. A wet farming demonstration project at Horsey, growing reed and reedmace, is encouraging discussions with farmers about the viability of this kind of farming.

What happens next?

A new Broads Peat partnership project is taking us into the next phase of almost £800,000-worth of peatland restoration planning in the Broads, funded by the Government’s Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme. Partners include the Broads Authority, Natural England, the Broads Internal Drainage Board, the Environment Agency, Palladium (which carries out global environmental projects), other UK national parks, and wildlife, land management and farming organisations and individuals. The partnership is working with farmers to develop peatland restoration schemes. It provides environmental evidence and brings in private finance (through the Revere initiative), at the scale and pace needed to tackle the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis.

Paludiculture

What culture?! Paludiculture – that’s the official name for wet farming and one important role for the partnership is spreading the word about this farming system. Interactive exhibitions at farming shows, presentations at COP26, national and local conferences, farm walks, carbon finance workshops and a discovery day for young people took place in 2022, and these events will continue. The discovery days are aimed at future decision makers, who can influence the way we use the precious peatland in the Broads and surrounding area. Young farmers, architects, artists, crafters and fashion designers can learn about business opportunities to grow paludiculture crops, and to build and create from paludiculture products. The events are also a chance to discuss sustainable and regenerative land management techniques, to help us adapt to climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

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• broads-authority.gov.uk/looking-after/projects

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Rails, Sails & Trails

What happens next following the hugely successful Generation Green? This was a national project coordinated by YHA, involving national parks and outdoor organisations, which provided more than 100,000 opportunities to connect young people with nature – many for the first time. Rails, Sails & Trails is just one example from the Broads showing how we have continued our activities with young people.

This 2022 project helped to introduce young people to what, for many of them, was a new world – the Broads. The project was managed by our education staff, with funding from the Community Rail Network, which includes Greater Anglia’s Wherry and Bittern Lines, and with support from many Broads Authority partners. The aim was to provide opportunities for young people and families who wouldn’t usually see the Broads to get out into the landscape by train. Many had never been to the Broads before and train travel was also a new experience for some.

The project took school and family groups by rail to stations along the Wherry Lines – the railway network connecting Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. On their journey through a typical Broads landscape, participants learnt about the history and wildlife of the Broads, and how trains gradually displaced the wherry – the local, traditional trading boat – as the main form of transport across the region. Walks, games, presentations and other activities were an important part of the days out, including creating artwork with Norfolk Art Club, based around the people, places and history of the Broads and the Wherry Lines.

Groups from New Routes Integration have participated in both Generation Green and Rails, Sails & Trails. New Routes Integration is a local charity supporting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants through promoting cross-cultural integration and community awareness. A young participant who came to the Broads as part of a group of girls and young women said: “I breathe and see differently in nature. I feel free." Another group, on their first trip across the Broads by train,

Water, Mills & Marshes (WMM)

Mill renaissance

Twenty twenty-three is the final year of our WMM landscape partnership scheme, though as with CANAPE, many of its projects will continue and develop. Mill restoration can be a seemingly neverending task, but that’s in the nature of such historic and unusual buildings. One of the main projects, to restore six of the Broads drainage mills, will be completed this summer. You can read about Norfolk Windmills Trust, one of the organisations caring for the drainage mills, on page 45.

Marsh history

Historical research has been another major aspect of WMM, with many projects contributing to our knowledge and understanding of life in the Broads in previous times. One of our long-term WMM volunteers has been carefully going through all the old tithe maps of the Broads and has done some wonderful cartography as part of the project. Tithe maps were used for tax purposes in the 19th century.

Water for waders

In terms of the actual marsh landscape, one of the big WMM successes has been a project led by the RSPB, in partnership with the Broads Authority and the Norfolk Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group, working to create new breeding wader habitat across the Broads. This project is supporting landowners to restore wet grassland habitats and to boost numbers of breeding waders, such as lapwing and redshank. These birds are part of the history of the grazing marshes, but their numbers declined as farming intensified. As part of the project, the RSPB’s Broads Wet Grassland Adviser organised an event at the Raveningham Estate, where they have long been involved in such conservation management. The event was attended by over 60 farmers, conservationists, land managers and graziers, and provided inspiration enjoyed fun and games at Oulton Broad and Nicholas Everitt Park, before going on to Lowestoft. As well as the Broads, the North Sea and the traditional seaside experience were something new for our visitors.

Similar work is continuing through these partnerships and we look forward to welcoming many more new Broads visitors.

You can read more about train travel on page 14 and about wherries on page 44. yha.org.uk/generationgreen communityrail.org.uk newroutes.org.uk for many new wetland projects. The RSPB adviser has worked with 43 farmers and landowners, leading to improved wet grassland on 4,586 hectares of land, with over 54km (33 miles) of wet features (or small waterways) restored or created. Wader numbers have increased dramatically, showing that nature can respond and recover quickly, given the right approach. watermillsandmarshes.org.uk rspb.org.uk