Safeguarding the future of Fen Drayton Lakes

A recent announcement by Cambridgeshire Horizons implied that £1.12M has been awarded  for the development of Fen Drayton Lakes  as a nature reserve.  Is this true?  Well yes, in part at least.  The RSPB has expressed interest in acquiring the Fen Drayton Lakes complex and did submit an ‘expression of interest’ to Cambridgeshire Horizons, the local body charged with administering the distribution of funding relating to the Cambridge Growth Area on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.  We have been successful in that Cambridgeshire Horizons has accepted our bid pending receipt of a detailed project proposal within the next two months.  If this too is acceptable then the funding should be available from April 2006 until March 2008.

However, this alone may not be sufficient for the RSPB to take over the site, we are still in negotiation with the current owners regarding its sale and although we are hopeful of a positive outcome the deal has yet to be concluded.

So if we are successful in acquiring Fen Drayton Lakes what will this mean for the site and local people?  As you may know the RSPB is currently working with Hanson at Needingworth quarry to establish a new 700ha wetland reserve following the phased extraction of gravel over the next 20 years.  Fen Drayton lakes would provide opportunities to develop even more wildlife habitat within the Ouse valley. We are currently negotiating the purchase of all the lakes including the older Mow Fen and some of the fields adjacent to the river as far north as Swavesey Drain.  The whole site would be managed for its wildlife, not just birds, delivering habitat for otters, water voles, butterflies, dragonflies and wild plants to name but a few.  To achieve this we would like to open up the views across Elney and Moors lake especially by removing a proportion of self sown willows and providing increased areas of shallow sloping shoreline to allow waters edge vegetation especially reeds to develop.  In other areas we may develop low lying wet grassland for the benefit of birds such as lapwing and redshank.

Access to the site will be maintained and where possible additional paths created.  However, in an effort to control inappropriate use of the site by vandals and others some controls may be necessary.  It would be our intention to employ full time staff to manage and warden the site and in the longer term it would be good to develop further visitor facilities and encourage visits by those with an interest in wildlife from further afield, especially the new communities proposed for the rapidly growing county.

Our aspirations and plans for Fen Drayton lakes are at an early stage but we very much intend to work closely with  local people, and with your help, to manage the area to improve its value for wildlife, local residents and visitors.  

Graham Elliott

RSPB Fens Area Manager