Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is going to restore over 50 hectares (128 acres) at Bourne North Fen; meeting 30% of the Nature Strategy for Lincolnshire target for this endangered fenland habitat; and turning it into a home for a wide variety of wildlife including bittern and greater water parsnip.

A Biffa Award grant of £750,000 has enabled the Wildlife Trust to purchase the land, which will link up with important wild places nearby, including the Wildlife Trust’s Willow Tree Fen, the first place where cranes have nested in Lincolnshire for 400 years.

Former farmland at Bourne North Fen will be transformed into a wet-fenland; South Lincolnshire is one of the driest areas in the UK, but also one with a high flood risk. How water is managed in this landscape is critical. Bourne North Fen will help regulate water supply during shortages and absorb floodwaters in times of spate. A new system of reedbeds will improve the quality of the Bourne Eau river before it enters the River Glen and increasing amounts of carbon will be captured by the wetland soils and plant life.

Creating a healthy wetland will support a rich diversity of wildlife including rare species that once flourished in the Fens such as bittern, common crane, bearded tit, greater water parsnip, European eel and spined loach.

Tammy Smalley, Head of Conservation, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust said:
“Bourne North Fen will demonstrate a pioneering way of managing water that could be replicated elsewhere and act as the key to unlock that door by providing an exemplar. Nature can provide many of the solutions facing us as a society, and Bourne North Fen will illustrate that.”

Anglian Water is involved with the project by match-funding. The water company and its partners are hoping that the development of Bourne North Fen and the lessons learnt from it will feed into the development of the new planned multi-sector reservoir which is currently being investigated for South Lincolnshire. The aim of this is to incorporate wetlands as part of the design for the new reservoir to provide both environmental and water quality benefits.

Alexa Sherry, Strategic Planning Manager, Anglian Water said:
“Bourne North Fen is an exciting project which will bring many benefits to the area. We hope to replicate this design as part of the development of our new strategic reservoir and are therefore pleased to work in partnership with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust to deliver this pilot for improved water management.”

Rachel Maidment, Biffa Award Grants Manager, said:
“Biffa Award is extremely privileged to be able to support Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s project to purchase and restore 52 hectares of land at the heart of the Lincolnshire Fens. It is hugely important that Biffa Award continues to fund projects like this which seek to protect and enhance habitats for a wide range of wildlife, including rare and endangered species. Through our Partnership Grants Scheme we are able to make significant grants of up to £750,000 to projects that introduce, conserve or protect wildlife and habitats paving the way for nature’s recovery on a large scale.”

Initially Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust will work with the University of Lincoln to establish an ecological and environmental baseline on site and design a monitoring programme. This will feed into the management plan for the site.

Dr. Carl Soulsbury, College of Science, University of Lincoln, said:
“The Bourne North Fen project is an exciting opportunity to enhance and protect an important habitat for endangered plants and animal, as well as unlock the potential for future green investment markets. The University is excited to work in partnership with the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in supporting this innovative work.”

It is hoped the site, between Bourne and Spalding in the south Lincolnshire Fens, will eventually become part of plans for sustainable eco-tourism in the area. 

The Wildlife Trust is leading the project as part of the South Lincolnshire Water Partnership (SLWP), which represents environment, public water supply, flood risk management, agriculture, business, tourism and leisure sectors.