CANAPE - Broads

The Creating A New Approach to Peatland Ecosystems (CANAPE) Project is an Interreg North Sea Region project led by the Broads Authority, focuses on restoring peatlands and encouraging new ways to manage them. In the Broads, this project is funding; -Restoration of lost fen margin in Hickling Broad, using peaty sediment dredged from the lake bed. -A citizen science programme to gather data on peat depth -Trials using wetland waste to make marketable products, starting with Charcoal from scrub clearances on fen.

The Broads are a series of man-made excavations from the Early Middle Ages, dug out to provide peat for fuel. Over time these have flooded creating a network of lakes. Hickling Broad is the largest of these. On the Southwestern edge the reedbed has been eroded away over the last sixty years due to loss of macrophytes from eutrophication, and the prevailing wind. Hickling Broad is a SSSI and a National Nature Reserve. It is one of the largest areas of continuous reedbed in England, and home to a range of species.

Using sediment dredged from the lake bed, as part of maintenance of the navigation rights in the Broad, the Broads Authority is creating a replacement 1ha reedbed in the area that has previously been lost. This will also create a sheltered area in the lake to allow some macrophytes that need still water to reestablish.

Between 2018 and 2020 the outer boundary of the reedbed has been constructed, and sediment is now being used to build up the level to the point where it is suitable for healthy reed growth.