Norfolk Conservation Corps - More Information

The History of the Corps: The Story So Far, Volume 1
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The same know-it-all then borrowed a mowing machine, again from George Taylor, and mowed the whole of the open area of the fen, quite a large area. The Corps' volunteers then came along, turned the mowings into hay, gathered it all up, took it off the site, and burned it, and the fen began to improve almost immediately. In the area from which the very heavy scrub cover had been removed, forty-seven columbines were seen in the following summer, columbines in flower not having been seen there for many years; some common spotted orchids were also seen out on the fen area which had always been open but had been dominated by the tall, thick, coarse vegetation of an unmanaged fen; and several other interesting things were seen.

Things then got better and better, as things tend to when a site is being managed by the Norfolk Conservation Corps and its volunteers. We mowed the fen every summer, and, after a few years of our work, summer saw the fen covered in common spotted orchids, marsh helleborines, grass of Parnassus, marsh fern, the (not so common nowadays) common butterwort, and lots of other good fen flora, yet another great success story for the Norfolk Conservation Corps.

It was such a great success that the know-it-all responsible invited Peter Lambley and Steve Rothera of English Nature to the site one summer, after we had been working on the site for several years, to show them what we had achieved and they were very impressed, and said so. Peter Lambley then smiled and said to Steve Rothera, "The funny thing is that I cannot remember the licence application for this work coming in to the office, or our granting the licence."

The know-it-all had not thought at all that to carry out work on a Site of Special Scientific Interest one has to apply for, and receive, a licence from English Nature, otherwise one gets taken to court and is fined Ł5,000. For some reason, the know-it-all was not taken to court. Instead, English Nature bought him his own mowing machine, so that the good work could be continued more easily, which is why we no longer have to do what we used to do on Lolly Moor, Scarning Fen, and other sites, i.e. using scythes to mow these large areas. All we have to do now is what we have done lots more of this summer on these three sites, making (and moving) hay while the sun shines.

The sun shines on the righteous, so the saying says, so let us hope that it is just as true next summer as it has been this year.

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