Why We Must Restore England’s Wetlands
England’s wetlands are wild treasures for our birds, native wildlife and marine creatures. From the windswept broads of Norfolk to the dragonfly-rich marshes in Somerset, these watery places are packed with everything from endangered curlews and water voles, to rare butterflies and sea turtles.
In 1637, East Anglia had 3,380 square kilometres of wetland. In 1986 there was just 10 square kilometres left.
Wetlands act as natural filters for water, guard our homes from floods and lock away carbon in deep layers of peat. Every patch, whether a wild estuary or a boggy strip in your garden, plays a part.
WWT is England’s main charity to help restore and protect our wetlands. There are wetlands worldwide (like coral reefs, lagoons and mangroves). But England has many of the main types of wetlands which provide vital homes to birds and wildlife including:
- Wet grasslands (home to endangered curlews and wildflowers)
- Seagrass beds (vital as food for endangered sea turtles)
- Rivers and streams (vital to keep free of oil, litter and sewage)
- Reedbeds (home to bitterns, eels and harvest mice)
- Ponds (vital homes for amphibians: frogs, toads & newts)
- Peat bogs (home to dragonflies, damselflies & butterflies)
- Lakes (these are home to over 140,000 species)
- Estuaries (where freshwater and seawater meets)
- Ditches & scrapes (these small areas also support wildlife)
- Fens (fertile wetlands, mostly found in Eastern England)
The best way to help dragonflies and damselflies is to preserve remaining wetlands (their natural homes). In 1637, East Anglia had 3,380 square kilometres of wetland. In 1986 there was just 10 square kilometres left.
The charity is helping to create and restore 100,000 hectares of wetlands in the UK and is actively purchasing low-lying ground to create and restore new wetlands.
It’s also creating a new saltmarsh nature reserve in the Forest of Dean, which will be a haven for wildlife, and also store carbon to help reduce floods and climate change.
Why Do England’s Wetlands Matter?
Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, often supporting a patchwork of reeds, bogs, ponds, and marshes. They might look like just soggy corners of the countryside, but they pack huge ecological punch.
- Flood defence: Wetlands soak up floodwater like a giant sponge, slowing it before it reaches homes and roads.
- Wildlife sanctuary: These habitats support more species, per square metre, than most other habitats. That means birds, insects, amphibians, and plants.
- Natural filter: Wetlands clean water by trapping pollutants and sediments.
- Climate cooling: They lock up carbon, helping to slow climate change.
Take away wetlands, and you risk losing not just wildlife, but also homes, history, and entire ecosystems.
Avoid Buying Peat Compost for Your Garden
Peat is precious. It forms over thousands of years and stores massive amounts of carbon. Many garden centres still sell compost made from peat dug out of ancient bogs. Using peat-free compost sends a message that you care.
It protects the peat bogs left in places like the Somerset Levels, which are home to dragonflies, damselflies and a whole crowd of rare wildlife.
If you garden alongside animals, read our post on pet-friendly gardens. Avoid fresh compost near pets (some composts like cocoa, pine or rubber are unsafe).
Restore Reedbeds and Seagrass Beds
Reedbeds and seagrass beds work like giant sponges, cleaning water and giving safe cover to fish, birds and insects. Groups across England are replanting these habitats bit by bit, pulling out invasive plants and letting the reeds regrow naturally.
If you’re near the coast, support efforts to re-seed seagrass beds. These watery meadows give shelter to seahorses and even young sea turtles in warmer months.
Ban Lead Ammunition
Water birds and many wetland animals suffer from old lead shot left behind. Lead poisons water voles, ducks and even predators higher up the food chain.
There is only a voluntary ban at the moment for people who shoot innocent animals. Join the campaign to ban lead ammunition.
Volunteer for Local Clean-Ups
Litter, plastic waste and dumped tyres clog up streams and marshes, trapping animals and blocking water flow. Joining or organising a clear-up, even once a year, means fewer birds, fish and amphibians get tangled up or poisoned.
Join your local litter-picking group, or set one up.
Help Wildlife Trusts Buy Wetland Sites
Many rewilding charities across England are working to secure precious wetland patches, restore water levels and manage grazing. Give them your support, as once they own the land, nobody can come along and build on it.
This direct action helps species from dragonflies, to elusive water voles. They also help to restore floodplains and wet grasslands, to help rivers cope with heavy rains. This gives birds like endangered lapwings their nesting space back, and also cuts flood risk for people.
Farmers are now also building swales and scrapes (small wet ditches and pools) on land, to help restore wetlands and help wildlife. Supporting peatland re-wetting projects also helps, which is already happening in the Pennine and North York Moors.
A Book on Bogs and Other Peatlands
The Book of Bogs is an anthology built from a shared passion for often overlooked and threatened landscapes – bogs and other peatlands. And like peat, this book is full of living things, including stories.
Stories of:
- Scientific study
- Archaeological discovery
- Personal stories
- Fiction & poetry
- Damage & threat
- Adventure & love
Stories of Walshaw Moor in West Yorkshire, alongside stories of the peatlands of Papua New Guinea, the Flow Country, Cors Caron and more.
This anthology from 40 writers (including Robert Macfarlane, Amy Liptrot, Alys Fowler and Guy Shrubsole) is a collaboration between ‘The Boggarts’, a group of writers working to protect our peatlands, which are home to endangered plants and wildlife, and help to prevent flooding.
Recent years has seen peat extracted to make garden compost, or flattened for the grouse-shooting industry (which causes floods).
A Year Surrounded by Marshy Wildness
On the Marsh is a lovely book by Simon Barnes (who used to be a peaceful troublemaker writing for national newspapers). On hearing a Cetti’s warbler sing in Norfolk as he looked at a house for sale, he decided to move there with his family, as he feared that marshy land nearby would end up being lost to developers or intensive farming.
As he and his wife rewilded the area, this had beneficial effects for their son, who has Down Syndrome. A place of calm and inspiration for all.
The book follows triumphs (two harrier families arrive to use the marsh as hunting ground). And disappointments (chemical run-off from neighbouring farmland creates a nettle monoculture).
About the Author
Simon Barnes is a travel writer and wildlife journalist, who was sports writer for The Times newspaper for 32 years. Many were appalled when they fired him, saying they could not afford his salary.
There were whispers that his writing on how hen harriers (endangered birds of prey) were being illegally killed by some in the grouse-shooting industry’, led to ‘heads will roll’ due to powerful landowner supporters of the newspaper.
The Somerset Levels: Wetlands Rich with Wildlife
Along with the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, the Somerset Levels are one of the most important wetland habtiats in England, shaped by rivers and peat to provide lowlands that are haven for local wildlife, thanks to reed beds and shallow lakes.
Always follow the Countryside Code, to keep all creatures safe.
Here you’ll find bitterns, marsh harriers and thousands of winter starlings, who call this place home. Along with cranes (England’s tallest birds) who have returned after 400 years.
The Post Track (the world’s oldest wooden trackway used by Neolithic people to navigate reed swamps) is here. And it’s one of few places in England that raft spiders are found. These chocolate-brown spiders often sit near bogs and ponds, and ‘floats like a raft’ when catching prey.
If you’re visiting a local pub, be prepared for a game of skittles (the original version of ten-pin bowling!)
How Florida Looks After Its Wetlands
Unlike in England where we have lost a lot of our wetlands, Floridians are passionate about preserving wetlands for their own species including flamingos and scary-looking alligators!
Florida is the southernmost state in the USA, not far from Cuba and the Caribbean. The top bit kind of flows into the Deep South, near Alabama.
The Florida Everglades is a whopping 1.5 million acres of wetlands, mangrove forests, marshes (similar to our Fens) and many species including sea turtles, wild dolphins, manatees and over 500 species of birds.
The land of orange trees, golf courses and white pristine beaches (though like in England, there are volunteer beach cleans to remove litter), this is a glorious place of ideas to inspire!
Florida is known as ‘the sunshine state’, due to the huge amount of sunny weather it receives. This tends to also reflect in the people, who have a sunny positive attitude about nearly everything, something possibly we could learn from in England!
Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Florida is a fairly large USA state, not far from the Caribbean. Yet despite being thousands of miles away, there is so much that we can learn from ‘the sunshine state’, not least in its can-do positive attitude of local people, who are cleaning oil spills, protecting wetlands and creating ‘planned communities’ that are almost perfect places to live!
Floridians Look After Their Wetlands
England’s wetlands are in trouble (we have lost most of them due to building and farming methods), which has led to plummeting numbers of wading birds and dragonflies/damselflies, and more floods.
Not so in Florida. The Everglades (one of the world’s largest wetlands) are looked after with love and care. You won’t any locals dropping litter, having bonfires or releasing balloons, fireworks or fire lanterns.
These slow-moving rivers of grass that cover nearly 2 million acres have many volunteers who keep the wetlands clean and protected, to help all native creatures from alligators and flamingos to spoonbills and ospreys.
Beautiful Planned Communities
The USA is way ahead with so-called ‘New Urbanism’, which builds planned communities that are walkable and with beautiful buildings, strong communities, independent shops and green spaces.
Read up on pet-friendly gardens and wildlife-friendly gardens. Also know trees to avoid near horses (including yew & oak).
Seaside (featured in The Truman Show film) was planned by architect Andrés Duany, and although expensive, is a wonderful inspiration on how to build a new town. The beautiful buildings sit on the coast, with old-fashioned porches, to watch the sunrise or sunset.
On Main Street, the post office to the cinema are designed in gorgeous Art Deco style, and the multi-faith church is open to people of all faiths.
Celebration again has a lovely main street and beautiful buildings, and lots of green spaces for people and dogs. The houses are designed so that cars are ‘hidden away’ underground. So unlike in England, where nearly all towns and villages are marred by dozens of cars parked on the street.
This creates walkable communities, with lower air pollution and better mental health (the town has an extremely low crime rate).
The Villages Retirement Community has beautiful affordable homes, designed with wide pavements, with car-free zones and nature trails.
It has several dog parks (all with shady covered bench areas and water stations), and all users must have microchipped dogs that are spayed or neutered, to help prevent lost pets and dog bites).
It’s known in the media for its golf courses, but it’s far more than that. The Villages has hundreds of social clubs to offer everything from tennis to dance nights. Nobody feels lonely, whether they choose to be an introvert and just enjoy the area, or get involved in everything they can!
Miami’s Free Public Transport Idea
Freebee is a wonderful idea, that we could take on board. It offers vehicles providing free public transport for locals and visitors, paid for by advertising (from small shops that get extra customers, as people can visit out-of-tourist areas to support local economies, via free transport).
The buses are well-designed (and accept well-behaved dogs). Not cheap transport – it’s totally free. This frees up income for users, who can then use the money to buy a coffee, a souvenir or explore areas to take a day out, which is good for everyone in the community (both residents and tourism).
Horseless Carriages (for tourists)
Considering England is supposed to be one of the world’s most animal-batty countries, it’s a mystery why we are so far behind on banning horse carriages for tourism. This is happening everywhere , from Spain to Mexico.
Horses used for tourism carriages can be tired and often thirsty when working, and there are massive issues with welfare (horse carriages have even recently been banned in New York’s Central Park, after a long campaign which saw many horses spooked and injured in traffic).
Old Mount Dora Carriage Company is a Florida company that uses quaint nostalgic carriages to ferry tourists and wedding guests around in the heat, leaving horses back at home in fields and stables.
Powered by people and electricity, read more on horse carriage alternatives.
What Not to Learn from Florida
Alas Florida is also the base for SeaWorld, one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions. But increasingly people are boycotting tourist aquariums, due to some wild creatures being taken from their ocean homes. Spaces are so small, it’s like you living in a bath tub for the rest of your life.
Usually held to perform tricks for tourists, the pools are too shallow, often leading to sunburn for big creatures like orcas (killer whales) as their backs stick out of the water. Many creatures have ended up dying or attacking keepers, due to stress and ill health.
