Nowhere in Britain has been shaped by humans as much as Fenland. From a wetland comparable with the Danube Delta or Camargue, it has been transformed into intensive arable.  Yet in this landscape with a reputation for monotony, a remarkable flora of aquatic and wetland species survives in ditches and drains, on floodbanks and meadows, in abandoned gravel and brick pits and in the relics of the old fens at Wicken, Woodwalton and Holme.  In addition, new habitats and opportunities for wildflowers have been created through roads, railways and villages.  This course will show how, far from being a desert, Fenland is a biodiversity hotspot that merits study and conservation.  The course will describe the habitats of Fenland and the special plants that survive between Lincoln and Cambridge.

Working for 40 years as a plant ecologist, mostly at Monks Wood, Owen’s research focused on transport routes, on wetlands and on combining productive agriculture with effective conservation.  Now retired, he divides his time between researching and writing about the Fenland and working on conservation projects in his other home of Romania.