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Wildlife along the River Ant
The Broads Authority began a huge project in 1995 to restore Barton Broad on the River Ant, to a healthy state, to make it a better place for wildlife and people. It is the Broads Authority's most ambitious restoration project to date and includes improvements to wildlife habitats, a huge increase in the area available for boats, restoration of lost landscape features and innovative improvements to access for visitors on land and on the water.
Owned by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, the whole area is also a National Nature Reserve made up of the broad and the surrounding reed beds, fen, marshes and swamp woodland. In fact, it is so important for wildlife that it has a string of special protection measures, both national and international. (It is within the area designated as the Ant Broads and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is also a Ramsar Site under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, a Special Protection Area under the EC Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds and is proposed as a Special Area of Conservation under the EC Habitats Directive. )
From the late 1970s, scientists have been studying Barton intensively, therefore a great deal is known about the changes in its chemistry and biology over a long period of time. The restoration of the broad, as part of a major wetland complex, is a feat of national and international significance for nature conservation.
You can take a trip on the broad on the solar-powered boat Ra, or take the walkway at Herons' Carr, where residents include otters and bitterns, as well as herons flying over to the nearby heronry. Fish are also in good supply.
Just downstream is the How Hill nature reserve, with Toad Hole Cottage Museum, boat trips on the Electric Eel, nature trail and a riverside walk to Ludham Bridge. How Hill is one of the best places to see the swallowtail, Britain's largest butterfly.
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