Wetland almost the size of Hyde Park being created

Work to create an area of wetland almost the size of Hyde Park has got under way.

Diggers are being used on the arable fields of Speechly's Farm at the Great Fen nature reserve, near Ramsey in Cambridgeshire.

About 136 hectares (336 acres) will be restored over the next 12 months with pools, channels and reedbeds created for wildlife.

Lorna Parker, project manager, said: "It's taken a huge amount of work from a lot of people to get to this point so it's amazing to see the diggers finally starting to create the channels which will soon fill with water and create a wetland landscape."

The project is part of the Great Fen vision, which began in 2000, with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire joining with other agencies to create a new wetland landscape.

The wildlife trust said "millions of megalitres of water" would be brought into the new area, alongside wetland species, including wading birds, water voles, otters, dragonflies and aquatic plants.

Restoration work is expected to create 2km (1.2 miles) of channels and four pools of water.

The Great Fen vision is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Parker said Speechly's Farm was "another scale of magnitude" compared with the completed restoration at New Decoy Farm nearby, where waders and ducks are already "dropping in".

"This will significantly increase the space for threatened species in Cambridgeshire - we're really excited to see what it's going to become."

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