Ouse Fen

The extensive reedbeds and other habitats, including open water and grassland, are managed by the RSPB for nature conservation.  

Swaying reedbeds are home to marsh harriers, bearded tits, otters and the secretive bittern. A visit at dawn or dusk may reveal a barn owl hunting over the grassland and scrubby margins. Ducks, grebes, swans and wading birds gather on the floodplain wetlands from autumn through to the spring.

In the Cambridgeshire Fens, once part of one of Europe’s great wetlands, a working sand and gravel quarry is being restored and transformed into a vast nature reserve. The Hanson–RSPB wetland project began in 2001. It’s a 30-year commitment to improve the site for wildlife and people, giving more nature a home for generations to come. In 2016, with 15 years of this exciting, award-winning project still ahead, the reserve already covers 218 hectares (more than 200 football pitches). 

Where, how and who?

• After 30 years, 28 million tonnes of sand and gravel will have been extracted from Needingworth Quarry. From the landscape left behind, Hanson and the RSPB are shaping and improving habitats for wildlife. This partnership project is a brilliant example of how planned restoration, following large-scale mineral extraction, can help wildlife thrive.

Our Ouse Fen reserve has already attracted a wealth of wildlife: species that were once common in the Fens are returning here to feed and breed. Bitterns, marsh harriers and bearded tits have already colonised the reserve, and their breeding numbers are increasing.

Ouse Fen will link up neighbouring RSPB nature reserves at Fen Drayton Lakes and the Ouse Washes, creating a near-continuous wetland of some 2,500 hectares – the Great Ouse Wetland. A project of this scale and vision can only happen with the support and enthusiasm of a wide range of organisations and individuals. Hanson and the RSPB would particularly like to thank Cambridgeshire County Council and local people for their help and support in developing this important project.

The Hanson-RSPB Wetland Project is an ambitious partnership project that will deliver the RSPB Ouse Fen nature reserve in Cambridgeshire. This is a partnership project between the RSPB and Hanson UK. It is also supported by Cambridgeshire County Council.

At Ouse Fen, we're working with Hanson on an ambitious wetland project to create Britain's biggest reedbed.

The reserve is being created in 20–40 hectare blocks, divided by low earth banks. Each of these reedbed blocks have been carefully designed to include pools (small meres) of open water linked by ditches and channels, allowing wildlife to move around the wetland. Once complete, the whole wetland will stretch for 700 hectares and include the largest reedbed in the UK, spanning 460 hectares!