Species and habitat monitoring

The first aim of the Great Fen is: 

To create a new, resilient, fenland landscape which delivers major wildlife benefits and achieves high standards of sustainability.

In order to ensure that the project is actually delivering these benefits for wildlife it is essential to monitor what is there now and to record new species as they arrive. The purpose of monitoring is to:

1. judge the progress and success of habitat restoration;
2. inform habitat management decisions.

This involves answering some of the following questions.

• What species occur?
• Where in the project area?
• When are they there?
• How many individuals are there?
• How are they affected by management?
• How do trends compare with national data?

Field methods

How far these questions can be answered varies from species to species, and a range of techniques and equipment needs to be used. For example, for many species of birds it is possible to answer the first four questions by walking across the project area in the early morning once a month and counting which birds are seen or heard - and you need a team of birdwatchers using binoculars. However, Water Voles are rarely seen but their presence can be inferred by looking for signs such as their droppings and burrows, so you need a team of trained volunteers to survey a sample of wet areas and ditches, sometimes wading and sometimes working from the bank or a boat. For species of deer, cameras can be used (see Chinese Water Deer), for bats you need bat detectors, while some groups of species can only be identified using a microscope (see, for example, Bryophytes).

Monitoring projects

The wardens of the two National Nature Reserves (NNRs), Woodwalton Fen and Holme Fen, have been monitoring wildlife for many years, but it has been particularly important to extend the monitoring programme as the new parts of the Great Fen area come into restoration.  

The following list of monitoring that is carried out by staff and volunteers on the Great Fen. If you would like to find out more about becoming a monitoring volunteer for future surveys, please contact Henry Stanier, the Great Monitoirng and Research Officer.

Reports

Below you can download some recent project reports.

2012 baseline survey of the vegetation of ditches in the Great Fen.pdf
Analysis of results from the 2012 baseline survey of the vegetation of ditches in the Great Fen and a comparison with the aquatic flora of Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve and other English sites. 
Margaret Palmer and Paul Tinsley-Marshall, November 2012.

Status, distribution and management of Water Voles on the Great Fen.pdf

Status, distribution and management of Water Voles, Arvicola amphibius, on the Great Fen

Paul Tinsley-Marshall and Michael Boyle, December 2013.

Species detection and distribution of small mammals on the Great Fen.pdf

Species detection and distribution of small mammals on the Great Fen using the bait tube methodology

Helen Bailey and Paul Tinsley-Marshall,  January 2014.

 Great Fen Bird report 2005-2013 (2014) Boyle Galpin Tinsley-Marshall.pdf

Great Fen Bird Report, 2005-2013

Michael Boyle , Barrie Galpin and  Paul Tinsley-Marshall, March 2014

Tinsley-Marshall and Eversham (2014) Carabid beetles as a tool for monitoring habitat restoration on the Great Fen.pdf
Carabidae (Ground) beetles as a tool for monitoring habitat restoration on the Great Fen.
Paul Tinsley-Marshall and Brian Eversham, March 2014

Ramsey Heights Great Crested Newts_final.pdf
Dragons of Ramsey Heights: A review of the ponds and great crested newt Triturus cristatus population at Ramsey Heights Countryside Centre
Josh Hellon and Terry Moore, January 2015