New habitat for important wildfowl species
Norfolk hosts some of the most diverse wildlife in the UK.
A new project to create a wetland habitat next to Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk is underway.
The project at Quarles Marsh will add over 200 acres of wetland environment between Wells-next-the-Sea and Lady Anne's Drive at Holkham with the aim of encouraging more rare species of wildfowl to visit or reside there.
Norfolk is well known for hosting some of the most diverse wildlife in the UK with Holkham recognised as one of the most extensive and internationally important reserves in the country. It has a varied and dramatic landscape with fresh, salt water and grazing marshes, sand dunes and pine trees providing the over wintering home to pink-footed geese, wigeon and many other species of wildfowl and waders.
Justin Morfoot, technical director of William Morfoot Ltd, a leading land drainage firm from Shipdam in Norfolk who have been working on the project, liaising closely with Natural England and the Holkham Estate, says: “It’s vital that the reserve continues to thrive because it plays host to so many wildlife visitors including some rare species. We want to create a new habitat which will increase the amount of fresh water grazing marsh habitat in this area which has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
The new project has seen new water control sluices and a large underground pipe installed to provide fresh water to flood Quarles Marsh from the adjacent Holkham Marsh area.
Important water level management on the marsh has been enabled via the construction of the sluices and by the damming of ditches in strategic locations and fresh water will be distributed around the marsh through five-and-half miles of existing ditches that have been re-profiled as part of the project.
More than 40 new wetland scrapes have also been created as part of the project, creating a mixture of deeper and shallower water to create an interesting and varied habitat for bird life living in the area to feed and nest in.
