Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and Freshwater Habitats Trust have announced a partnership project that aims to safeguard some of England’s rarest wetland insects and restore precious alkaline fen habitats across Oxfordshire.

The Fen Futures: Recovering Rare Fen Insects project will focus on eleven fen sites centred on the internationally important Cothill Fen Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and surrounding wetlands in west Oxfordshire. Together, these sites support nationally significant populations of four threatened species: the southern damselfly, orange-horned green colonel, clubbed general, and dark-winged soldier. 

The project is being developed under Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme (SRP), which supports targeted action for England’s most threatened wildlife through habitat restoration, research, monitoring and species recovery initiatives. The programme forms part of the Government’s wider commitment to reverse species decline and restore nature across England.

Over nearly three years, BBOWT and Freshwater Habitats Trust will work together to restore and enhance fen habitats, create new breeding areas, undertake specialist surveys, and deepen scientific understanding of these rare insects and the habitats they depend on.

A key feature of the project will be the use of innovative DNA techniques to investigate whether DNA collected from soldierfly larvae and larval habitat surveys can provide a reliable new method for detecting these elusive species and understanding their habitat requirements. This research could have wider implications for monitoring rare wetland invertebrates elsewhere in the UK. 

BBOWT’s Senior Land Manager, Roger Stace, said:

“The fens around Cothill are some of the most important wetlands in England. We are lucky in Oxfordshire to have such precious habitats supporting populations of these incredibly rare soldierflies and damselflies. The Fen Futures project will give these sites and the wildlife they support a much needed boost to facilitate more ambitious work to restore and connect the habitats. The research this project can fund will provide new information to support that management.”

Dr Naomi Ewald, Freshwater Habitats Trust, said: 

"We are committed to working with our partners to build the Freshwater Network, creating wilder, wetter, more connected freshwater landscapes. Oxfordshire's alkaline fens are a crucial part of that network, supporting an extraordinary range of specialised species found nowhere else. This funding gives us the opportunity to work alongside BBOWT to restore these rare wetlands, reconnect habitats and build a more resilient future for freshwater wildlife across the county."

The project will deliver habitat improvements across eleven sites, including:

• Creation of new shallow pools.
• Restoration and reopening of fen runnels and water channels.
• Removal of scrub, trees and invasive vegetation to restore open fen conditions.
• Creation of glades and transitional habitats to improve connectivity between populations.
• Long-term monitoring of rare species populations and habitat quality.

As well as practical conservation work, the partnership will engage local landowners, farmers, volunteers and communities through site visits, talks and events designed to raise awareness of the importance of Oxfordshire’s alkaline fens and the groundwater systems that sustain them.

The project builds on decades of conservation work by both organisations and will strengthen the ecological connections between some of Oxfordshire’s finest freshwater habitats.