About Strumpshaw Fen

Habitat

This reserve has the full range of broadland habitats and wildlife. Walk round the reedbeds, woodlands and orchid-rich meadows and you could chance upon marsh harriers, bitterns and kingfishers.

Conservation

Work on our reedbeds includes removing scrub and invasive plants, summer mowing and grazing and seasonal flooding. We are also managing our fen meadow for its flora and breeding snipe by maintaining water levels, clearing rushes, grazing and mowing, and trampling with livestock to create boggy ground.

We are managing our wet grassland for the benefit of wintering waterfowl and breeding waders, using grazing and topping to create suitable sward heights. We also cut back encroaching rushes and scrub and control ditch water levels, while retaining boggy areas and pools.

We are managing our wet woodland for key breeding birds, including Cetti's warblers, willow tits and bullfinches. Our intervention here is minimal, except to control alien plants, protect standing dead wood and keep water levels high enough from April to July.

We are managing our pools, ponds and ditches for the benefit of aquatic flora, wildfowl, otters, water voles and bitterns. Work includes maintaining ditch edges, improving water quality, removing vegetation from open pools and increasing the number of fish.

Site information

Strumpshaw Fen is part of the Mid Yare Valley along with Surlingham, Rockland, Buckenham and Cantley in the Norfolk Broads. The valley protects a mosaic of wetland habitats which is home to bitterns and other important species. Strumpshaw Fen has the designations SSSI, SPA, SAC.