Natural England has started work on a £3.5 million Hoveton Wetland Restoration Project as part of the Broads Natura 2000 long-term restoration programme.

Situated near the eastern English coast in the county of Norfolk, the Broads Natura 2000 network site is an internationally important wetland ecosystem and covers an area of 5 889 ha. Its lakes are a key biodiversity and iconic landscape feature that have suffered from a legacy of water quality issues.

Hoveton Great Broad and Hudson’s Bay have been flagged as a priority for lake restoration work – the sites comprise 12.5% (36.51 ha) of the Broads Natura 2000 site and host naturally eutrophic lake habitats listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive.

The sites' conservation status has been in an ‘Unfavourable No Change’ condition for at least 40 years, mainly due to historic nutrient inputs from sewage works and diffuse sources. 

This has resulted in high algal biomass, loss of aquatic macrophyte biodiversity, turbid water, large amounts of fluid nutrient-rich sediment and shallow water depths, leading to an overall decline in the associated biodiversity, particularly birds and invertebrates.

The Broads has a long-term restoration programme in place, which includes a Lake Restoration Plan that identifies and prioritises restoration actions.

The main aim of the Bure LIFE project is to restore the naturally eutrophic lake habitat to a species-rich, clear-water state through minimal carbon footprint project actions. Specifically, the project aims to improve the ecological condition of the naturally eutrophic lakes within Hoveton Great Broad and Hudson’s Bay, bringing them to a ‘Unfavourable Recovering’ conservation status by 2020. This will involve sediment removal from both water-bodies and biomanipulation of both lakes to achieve clear-water conditions.

In addition, the sediment will be reused to create new areas of fen vegetation corresponding to the previous extent of marginal lake edge habitats, including calcareous fens, and to help restore eroded river banks;

The project will also monitor the recovery process and disseminate best practice guidance associated with the restoration techniques to managers of similar habitats both within the SAC and elsewhere in the UK and the rest of Europe.

Expected results include:

• Removal of around 59 600 m3 of sediment from the eastern end of Hoveton Great Broad (HGB);
• Removal of around 37 900 m3 of sediment from Hudson’s Bay and western area of HGB;
• Removal of 75% of the target fish species (principally roach and bream) through isolation of the lakes from the River Bure and Hoveton Marshes dyke network with six fish-proof barriers and a three-year fish removal programme;
• A Monitoring Plan to capture the habitat response to the management actions and to monitor the success of moving the lake towards meeting its conservation objectives.

Total budget for the  £3.5 million (€5,004,346) project, which started in September 2015 and will run to November 2020, includes an EU contribution of€3,002,608.