Our Vision...part #2

The second Part of our vision and the last of our 6 Heritage week blog posts

Part 2 The vision for people, communities & amenity

The establishment of a landscape scale wetland would bring with it many benefits for people, communities and businesses.

The draw of the wildlife spectacle alone will bring visitors. With a wider spread of visitors out with the more traditional tourist periods in July & August. October to June would likely see the best wildlife events and draw in visitors to see nesting birds of prey in spring and the arrival and wintering of huge flocks of wintering waterbirds.

To facilitate visitors, facilities at key points would provide venues for interpretation of the wildlife and in many places that interpretation would combine cultural heritage. The area is well know for its cultural heritage and the combination of nature and culture provides an attractive tourism offer. The network of natural and restored wetlands would be linked to each other by walkways and cycle routes provided along new and existing routes and linked to key hubs at villages and towns where accommodation, events and other facilities will be centred. The establishment of “blueways” for kayaking and canoeing into the heart of some of the wetlands may be developed.

existing peat harvesting infrastructure could
provide an opportunity for access development
in future?
(image copyright Alan Lauder)

The large scale and widespread nature of the sites will manage to maintain a quiet, wild feel to an area which in time may see many tens of thousands of new visitors each year. All the while ensuring some areas remain visitor free to provide secluded wilderness areas just for wildlife.

The benefits may go further than bringing in new visitors and in some cases with the right science behind it some of the wetlands might be well placed to assist with flood storage or simply through slowing down water run-off to the rivers to delay or reduce flood impacts. The complex hydrology involved in this will require careful planning but where it is possible to achieve multiple benefits the wetlands could provide an opportunity to do so.

More people in the area will mean existing businesses will benefit but in addition new businesses may spring up to appeal to those looking for tourist services like guiding, for wetland management services or for developing the use of wetland products like reed from harvesting for conservation purposes.

Farming, mentioned already, may also benefit from direct sales to new visitors and from new opportunities for diversification.

Local schools and communities will benefit from the opportunity to use the new wilderness park areas for environmental education, for developing skills through volunteering and for promoting health & well-being through more contact with nature and the outdoors.   

The Wetland Wilderness Park will bring the opportunity for huge wildlife benefits in conjunction with community benefits and provide a special experience for local people and visitors alike. 

This vision starts the ball rolling on the project to start defining where we would like to get to and to help define the main opportunities and issues with stakeholders and the public. As the project progresses over the next two to three months towards our final proposed framework plan we will adapt, expand and amend our vision in light of stakeholders, partners and the public's views. look out for more posts in the coming weeks...