I head up to Norfolk to visit my pal Matthew Hay, at High Fen Wildland. This 292 hectare site was originally farmed for arable and daffodil growing but was too wet to farm commercially. So, in 2022 nature restoration company Nattergal purchased the site with a wonderful vision to recreate a mosaic of diverse fenland habitats, akin to how it might have looked before it was drained for farming in the 17th Century. 

Installing a series of sub-surface bunds to re-wet the site will boost species richness and, just as importantly, preserve the site’s peat. Peat is an enormous store of carbon and, as Matt points out, it is ‘the unsung hero of the natural world’. Historic drainage of the peat resulted in huge amounts of carbon being released so the re-wetting of the peat will help save this really important carbon store from further degradation, and also enable new peat formation in the future.

Matt shares the fascinating history of the Fens, the habitats they are restoring, species reintroduction already underway and how Nattergal are harnessing natural capital investment to fund the restoration project and revive the ‘Spirit of the Fen’.