4288 x 2848 px | 36,3 x 24,1 cm | 14,3 x 9,5 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
7 novembre 2014
Informations supplémentaires:
Holme Fen is part of the Freat Fen which aims to re-instate part of Fenland to its pre-drainage condition. It includes the lowest point in Great Britain at 2.75 metres (9.0 ft) below sea level. A few hundred years ago, this land was on the edge of three-mile wide Whittlesey Mere, the largest lake in southern England. It was a place for ice skating, sailing and home to many species of wildlife found nowhere else. Some of these species, including the large copper butterfly, became extinct when the mere was drained to create farmland in the 1850s. After drainage, an area on the Mere's southwestern shore was still too wet for farming and this became Holme Fen which survives as one of the only fragments of ancient wild fen. There are still small areas of acid grassland and heath as well as a very small piece of raised bog. However, drainage of the adjacent areas meant that this National Nature Reserve itself dried out and became the largest Silver Birch woodland in lowland England. One of the aims of the Great Fen project is to prevent further damage to this habitat by ceasing to drain the surrounding land.
