A southern gateway to the broads national park v1

Wildness as far as you can see

Creating a southern gateway to the Broads National Park

Please give us your views Help us plan an exciting future for Carlton & Oulton Marshes Suffolk Wildlife Trust is your local nature charity. The biggest nature reserve purchase the Trust has ever undertaken is happening at Carlton & Oulton Marshes on the doorstep of Lowestoft.

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This will create exciting new opportunities for local people and will offer visitors the chance to experience wildlife on a scale that simply doesn’t exist at the moment in this part of the Broads National Park.

With the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund we are exploring ideas to develop new visitor and education facilities which will make the reserve the southern gateway to the Broads National Park.

England’s wildlife is under great and ever growing pressure. It is vital that we restore our land on a landscape scale so that can it support more wild plants and animals.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s ambition to extend Carlton & Oulton Marshes is a unique opportunity to do just this and it has my whole-hearted support.

Please help Suffolk Wildlife Trust rescue this precious corner of East Anglia and bring back wildlife in all its splendour.

AERIAL: JOHN LORD

Sir David Attenborough

THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS

Please share your views with us

ANDREW MARSH

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s ambition for Carlton & Oulton Marshes We have the opportunity to buy the fields alongside Carlton Marshes. It is the biggest nature reserve purchase Suffolk Wildlife Trust has ever undertaken and is happening on the doorstep of Lowestoft We have cared for Carlton Marshes nature reserve for over 40 years and in that time thousands of schoolchildren have learnt about nature with our education team.

Your local Suffolk Wildlife Trust team

Jo Shackleton Education Officer

JOHN FERGUSON

Matt Gooch Broads Warden

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Buying the fields alongside Carlton & Oulton Marshes will put the landscape back together − like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle

Have you been to the Marshes?

Matt Gooch Broads Warden

Did you go as a child?

LOWESTOFT Peto’s Marsh

SWT nature reserves 627 acres Opportunity now Total area

384 acres 1,011 acres 2 MILES

SWT education centre Railway line Land managed for wildlife by our neighbours

Oulton Marshes Ou

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Oulton Broad

Carlton Marshes Share Marsh Castle Marshes

Barn owl

Water vole

Lapwing

Southern marsh-orchid

5 PHOTOS; BARN OWL: GARY SMITH FLPA, WATER VOLE: GAVIN DURRANT, LAPWING: DAVID TIPLING, ORCHID; STEVE AYLWARD

Over time, a wilder, wetter landscape will emerge In the UK’s most nature-rich National Park By 2022 the western fringe of Lowestoft will be a magnificent water-filled landscape, which brings the very best of the Broads right to the edge of the town.

The wildlife value of Carlton & Oulton Marshes has long been recognised by

the national and international habitat protection the reserve has been given.

Add to this the reserve’s location within the Broads National Park, which supports more rare and unique species than any other UK National Park, and the national importance of the land purchase is clear.

There are over

11,000

AERIAL VIEW; JOHN LORD, REDSHANK: DAVID KJAER

species in the Broads

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The Broads is a place for endless romance. You don’t have to be a specialist to feel part of it Andrea Kelly Senior Ecologist Broads Authority

THE BROADS NATIONAL PARK Creating 1000

acres

wildness

will of make more space for the nationally rare wildlife that have been protected by the nature reserve

In the early 1970s, marsh harrier numbers in the UK were perilously low. Their breeding success at Carlton Marshes made a significant contribution to their UK recovery.

Carlton & Oulton Marshes nature reserve

Do you watch nature programmes on television?

Do you do anything to help nature?

The reserve will become a spectacular Broadland landscape you can enjoy every day

significant place for wildlife, supporting breeding populations of some of the UK’s rarest wetland species, that it will be recognised as a National Nature Reserve and be a place UK nature-lovers know about and aspire to visit.

Fen raft spider

Purple heron Common crane

Spoonbill

FEN RAFT SPIDER: ALEX HYDE NATUREPL.COM, PURPLE HERON: ALAMY, COMMON CRANE; BERN ZOLLER FLPA, SPOONBILL; KEVIN ELSBY FLPA

Creating the foundations for a wildlife landscape to develop will need an ambitious restoration programme, re-wetting the marshes, reinstating long lost ditches and planting the largest reedbed in the Broads.

In time the reserve will be such a nationally

JOHN FERGUSON

After decades of artificially low water levels, we will work with nature to restore the landscape of reed, marsh and fen that makes Broadland so special

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The reserve is on a major flyway. If we create a rich landscape of water, marsh and mud, birds passing over on their global journeys will find it Matt Gooch Broads Warden

Where do you spend time outdoors?

JOHN FERGUSON

How does being in nature make you feel?

Lowestoft will be on the UK nature map The reserve can be easily reached by train, boat, car, bus, bicycle and on foot. Few places in the UK with such spectacular wildlife are so easy to get to With unparalleled opportunities to get close-up to wildlife and brought to life by landmark visitor facilities and an imaginative programme of nature activities, this will be the most exciting nature experience in East

JOHN FERGUSON

Bearded tit

Anglia for adults and children. It will reconnect people to the natural world and foster a sense of place for the southern half of the Broads National Park from which a new nature tourism economy can grow.

More nature tourism will benefit Lowestoft.

On the Suffolk Coast, the reserve at RSPB Minsmere has been shown to attract ÂŁ2.9 million of

visitor spend to the

View of the new centre from the Marshes

KEVIN SAWFORD

local economy

Do you think this will be good for Lowestoft?

Architect’s view to main entrance of the proposed centre

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The centre will be the starting point for visitors, creating a welcoming space – a southern gateway to the Broads National Park - from which people can venture out into the landscape and explore with confidence

Architect’s impression of the new centre

Julian Roughton CEO Suffolk Wildlife Trust

The Gateway design of the centre draws visitors towards the marshes and then opens up into a wide-screen landscape, framed by reed-fringed dykes and distant horizons

ARTIST’S IMPRESSIONS: COWPER GRIFFITH DOG WALKER: KEN GILLESPIE

Can you picture yourself spending time here?

The new visitor facilities will make it easier for everyone to learn about and get closer to nature When we spoke to reserve visitors in spring 2016 over half suggested we should include improvements to the facilities in our plans

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New moorings will allow pleasure boats to arrive and visitors to arrive by day boat from Oulton Broad or take the foot ferry across the Waveney to hire a canoe or enjoy a pub lunch.

The dedicated activity space for schools and an exciting programme of hands-on learning will bring the reserve to life, creating opportunities for local children and schools to discover more about the Broadland landscape they live in.

Wellies & an inquisitive mind are all a child needs for an adventure on the marshes Jo Shackleton Education Officer

DAVID TIPLING

Popular suggestions were a café, ice cream, toilets, better paths and bird watching hides.

We are looking to have all these – and much more, including space for children to play, a fully accessible viewpoint in the heart of the marsh, a look-out point, spider watching platform and even an electric boat ride through the reedy creeks out of the reserve and into Oulton Dyke.

Feel happier,

healthier and connected to

nature

PHOTOS: JOHN FERGUSON

What would encourage you to visit the Marshes?

Would anything put you off visiting?

Each visit will surprise and inspire you with new experiences of nature Carlton & Oulton Marshes can become a place you feel part of and are drawn back to − with your family and friends The centre and the adjoining outdoor space for refreshments and wild play will be a place local people can make their own. Friends can meet up for a coffee, families will wander down at weekends for an ice cream and a scramble in the wild play area, community groups will use the facilities for their activities or head out onto the reserve for a walk.

Volunteers from the local community will be the heart and hands of Carlton Marshes,

actively involved in every aspect of the reserve − welcoming visitors, teaching school children, monitoring birds, mowing paths, leading walks, serving refreshments, taking photographs, organising events and working on the marshes.

It will be a bustling community hub, offering rewarding and enriching opportunities for volunteers of all ages to make friends and learn new skills.

PHOTOS; JOHN FERGUSON

Where do you go now for days out?

JOHN FERGUSON

What makes them special?

Children who spend time in nature have better

health and wellbeing

ALAMY

ALAMY

Suffolk Wildlife Trust Brooke House Ashbocking Ipswich IP6 9JY info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Registered charity no 262777

suffolkwildlifetrust.org PHOTOS: WATER VOLE: GAVIN DURRANT, VOLUNTEERS: JOHN FERGUSON, BARN OWL: GARY SMITH FLPA, CHILDREN: JOHN FERGUSON, BITTERN: DAVID HERMON, MARSH HARRIER: PAUL SAWER FLPA