Flushing out fen 'plugholes' Massive project to revive wetlands.

Byline: ANDREW FORGRAVE

IT'S the biggest wetland restoration scheme in Wales, possibly Britain. And yet its size, at 751 hectares, doesn't do justice to the scope of the Anglesey and Llyn Fens LIFE project, launched earlier this year.

In reality, its vision is much bigger. Justin Hanson, one of the two ecologists who devised the project, likens it to a washbasin.

"If you imagine the wetland is the plughole, then the rest of the scheme will encompass the sink," he said.

For although conservation work will focus on core marshland areas north of Llangefni and south of Nefyn, the project also hopes to involve surrounding farmers, businesses, community groups and schools.

Preliminary work on the pounds 5m scheme began in February, though it will be formally launched at this month's Anglesey County Show.

Over the next five years it hopes to restore the two sites to international prominence. In the process it aims to build business opportunities for local people, re-establish traditional working practices and create a new local food brand for participating farmers.

There are two other benefits. Wetlands, and their ability to store carbon, are crucial bulwarks against climate change. And conserved marshes produce purified drinking water - hence Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water's interest in the scheme.

"At present they spend a lot of money treating water in Llyn Cefni," said project leader Mr Hanson, former conservation officer at the Countryside Council for Wales.

"As the reservoir is supplied by brackenish water from Cors Erddreiniog, the company realises it makes sense to take the problem at source."

The Anglesey and Llyn fens special areas of conservation (SACs) were once central to the pastoral tradition of North Wales. Farmers grazed the marshes with livestock and har-vesterushes for bedding and roofing. It was a centuries-old balanced approach that inadvertently produced a haven of rare plants and wildlife.

Some habitats, said Dr Hanson, had the equivalent rarity value of ospreys.

Over the past 20-30 years the habitats have degraded as farmers focused on the most productive land. The LIFE project aims to restore the balanced approach, in turn demonstrat-inthat profitable agriculture and environmentalism can work together towards a common purpose.

How will this be achieved? Targeted capital grants will be offered to landowners within the catchments for measures that will stop nutrient loss and restore habitats, such as scrub clearance, new livestock fencing, soil testing and gateway hardstanding.

Ditches, streams and springheads will be repaired to ensure water flows towards the marshlands. Farmers canvassed so far have expressed concern about rising water tables. One solution may be to lower catchment land levels using a method that has had conservationists spluttering into their cornflakes: peat extraction.

According to Mr Hanson, some peat areas have become too nutrient-enriched by years of land improvement by farmers. If rare plants are to thrive, the top layer must be removed. In any case, some small-scale peat digging is known to be beneficial.

One plan is to mix this peat with reeds harvested using new reedbeed stripping machines. The resulting compost would be bagged and sold as value-added soil enricher.

This may tie in with another component of the strategy - to build a local food brand based on the conservation credentials of the project's farmers. It's possible this may be linked with a similar venture planned this summer by the Anglesey Grazing Animals Partnership.

Included in the project's budget is money to buy neglected land, if needed, with prices set by independent valuers. Already the owner of an 80-acre parcel is in talks.

Beyond the fens themselves, the project envisages a curtain of "complementary and connected" habitats, such as hazel scrub on limestone valley sides. At stake is the reversal of habitats fragmentation, and the resulting problems for wildlife as they negotiate climate change.

More than anything, Mr Hanson wants to rediscover some of the treasured plants he recalls seeing while walking the fens as a young boy. Evidence of what can be achieved, on a smaller scale, has been provided by work on the Cors Coch fens by North Wales Wildlife Trust.

"Last year narrow firebreaks were cut into the fen," he said.

"Now the rarely seen bladderwort is thriving in areas where reeds and rushes have been cut back, allowing light to get to these strange carnivorous plants."

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CAPTION(S):

Ponies on fen- land, left, and, below, the rare bladderwort, which traps insects via a vaccumoperated underwater trapdoor system Cattle graze next to fens, above, and left, a fly orchid The Anglesey and Llyn Fens LIFE project team, Justin Hanson, Peter Jones and Llion Jones