Carlton Marshes - major habitat creation

Creating a new landscape for nature

Carlton Marshes is a very special place for wildlife, and it is about to get even better.

With the National Lottery Heritage Fund's investment of over £4 million in our vision for 1000 acres of wildness, the transformation of Carlton Marshes into the southern gateway to the Broads National Park is underway. As water flows back onto the land, nature will take over once again.

From April 2019 to spring 2020, the reserve will be awash with activity, as the wetland habitats are created, together with a stunning new visitor centre, viewpoints and paths.

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Peto’s Marsh: Reedbed & pools

The sheer size of the new Peto’s Marsh reedbed will make this a spectacular place to enjoy the wildlife of the Broads National Park. Whilst the reeds will stretch into the distance, deep pools and water-filled channels will bring birds close to the path and give nature-lovers a window into life amongst the reeds.

Creating this vast watery landscape of reed and pools is a major engineering project. We have learnt from the experience of similar projects across the region, to help us create the ideal nesting and feeding habitat for species such as bittern, common crane and marsh harrier.

As water flows in, nature will take over and we can look forward to watching these magnificent birds wheel over Peto’s Marsh.

Share Marsh: Scrapes and dykes

Share Marsh will be transformed into an intricate patchwork of shallow open water pools and wide Broadland ditches (dykes). As water seeps back into its parched soils, Share Marsh will once again ooze with life-giving mud, and wildlife will follow.

Restoring the dykes which criss-cross the marshes will enable the aquatic plants and invertebrates that are special to the Broads to spread. Agile species like dragonflies will colonise rapidly, although the rare freshwater snails might take decades to make their way to the far reaches of this huge new nature reserve!

With swathes of grazing marsh and pools, together with new viewpoints, Share Marsh will be a mesmerising wildlife experience for everyone. We can look forward to lapwing reeling between the pools, avocet chicks dabbling in the shallows, Norfolk hawker patrolling the dykes and rafts of duck and geese in winter.