The English Heritage strategy for Wetlands

Submitted by vicky on Friday, 15 February 2002 Page Views: 1185

In February 2002 English Heritage published a draft Strategy for Wetlands in response to the University of Exeter’s Monuments at Risk in England’s Wetlands (MAREW) report.

The draft strategy, related press release and link to the MAREW report can be found in the ‘news’ section of the EH website (www.english-heritage.org.uk). There is no date for which responses are required although the press release indicates that EH “is planning to hold a seminar in the near future to discuss the MAREW report and its own strategy…”.

The MAREW report and the strategy both list ‘famous’ wetland archaeological finds – ‘Pete Marsh’/Lindow Man, Star Carr, Sweet Track, Flag fen etc – examples of how the subject can grab attention.

As background the following shocking statistics come to the fore – 78% of sites have been lost in the last 50 years; 8,010 monuments lost due to land drainage for agriculture; 2,180 monuments damaged when 165,000 hectares of wetland pasture were converted to arable land; 2,020 monuments lost to peat waste and a further 360 to peat erosion; 230 monuments/11,500 hectares of lowlands peat extracted and 55,000 hectares/700 monuments lost to urbanisation and development.

The strategy recognises the importance of wetlands to human populations and states “a human presence of some sort should therefore be assumed in any and all wetlands…”.

The draft strategy is based on 4 main principles – Management (to protect heritage and conservation through guidance development); Outreach (promotion and dissemination of information to public, landowners and to ‘professional interests’; Policy – promotion of wetland heritage interests in local authorities and governments at national and international level and Research – continuing existing programmes to develop good management techniques.

The strategy contains a long wish list of action points all headed “English Heritage will…” – these include developing site-specific conservation management strategies for the most important wetland monuments at risk; develop specific contacts with organisations in England (eg RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Drainage Boards, Environment Agency, National Trust etc) to develop joint policies; enhance the profile of wetlands archaeology; disseminate the successful results of research; support local authorities; pursue protection measures through legislation; develop a co-herent research strategy for wetland monuments at risk; produce an inventory of the most important wetland monuments; extend public access to wetland archaeology and spread information through the popular media (including the web) and discuss and develop consistent archaeological policy with the peat extractors.

The full list is much longer and is contained in the draft strategy (a relatively small document to download).

The draft strategy does not talk about the specifics of resource allocation (apart from the indication that a dedicated officer will be appointed to take the strategy forward) so it is unclear how much of the wish list will/can be pursued. Clearly there are areas where we as the interested public would see advantages – the open publication of research findings, raising the awareness of wetland archaeology, production of a comprehensive inventory of wetland archaeology and the allowing public access to sites.

There is much we can contribute to the strategy and its implementation through encouragement of the development of its aims and the direct lobbying to ensure adequate resources are allocated to wetland archaeology before more monuments are lost.

Contributor Bio for vicky: Ex Megalithic Portal Editor, Co-author of 'Rock Around the Peak - Megalithic Monuments of the Peak District' and... More

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