A host of wildlife: I have been the Cothill Fen Project Officer for four months now, but in that short time I have been amazed by the incredible wildlife of BBOWT’s nature reserves around the Cothill area.

I have waded through sulphur-smelling swamp whilst listening to cuckoos at Parsonage Moor; heard the song of the reedbunting at Lashford Lane Fen; watched solitary bees burrow into the cliffs at Dry Sandford Pit and scrambled through the tussocks at Gozzard’s Ford Fen which, although hostile to humans, makes a wonderful habitat for all kinds of insects.

It is amazing to think how lucky we are to have the largest surviving area of alkaline fen in central England, just outside Oxford.

And thanks to funding from SITA Trust (through the Landfill Communities Fund), BBOWT has been able to set up a project to help enhance the fen habitat of these four surprisingly different reserves right on our doorstep.

Water everywhere: All four of these reserves are linked together by the Sandford Brook, which brings faster moving water to each site.

My favorite part of Lashford Lane Fen is where the path follows the Brook through damp, dark and shady stretches perfect for prehistoric-looking mosses and liverworts that glisten on the side of the channel.

And where it opens up to reveal sunny banks, I have heard the tell-tale ‘plop’ of a water vole jumping in to the stream.

It is intriguing that in this area the majority of the water comes, not from upstream, but from below ground; fens rely on being fed by groundwater and, in this case, springs provide calcium-rich, slow-moving water which allows all kinds of water-loving vegetation to grow up, whether it be the small and delicate marsh helleborines of Dry Sandford Pit or the great mounds of tussock sedge at Parsonage Moor.

If you need proof of where the water flows from, just feel the hard, white crusts of calcium deposits on the plants in the water.

Since starting in my job, I have been gathering information on how best to monitor the water levels and water flow at Lashford Lane Fen and Dry Sandford Pit.

This will enable BBOWT to decide on the future management of the site.

Thanks to the project, I have been able to buy some vital survey equipment to help with this task and volunteers are helping to carry out the surveys.

Careful management: Fen is a ‘succession habitat’, so it needs careful management to stop it changing from the fabulous open, light and watery environment it provides for the wildlife it supports, to becoming dominated by reeds, scrub and eventually woodland. Many years ago, this management was carried out at Parsonage Moor by people cutting the peat for fuel.

This lowered the ground level and created open water which dragonflies now dart around, and acidic flushes where surprising plants grow amongst the calcium-rich soils, such as the insectivorous butterwort which catches insects on its sticky leaves and ingests them for nutrients.

Soon we will be recreating the historical practice of peat-cutting with our volunteers and plenty of spades, shovels and wheelbarrows.

Get involved: There are lots of ways to get involved in the project.

Visit www.bbowt.org.uk for more information on the Cothill Fens and local volunteering opportunities.