Countryfile: The Fens
Countryfile
Anita and Matt are at the lowest point in the UK, the Fens, to explore the way wildlife and people coexist at and below sea level.
Matt helps with a peatland health check and learns that the historic draining of the Fens for agriculture had a lasting environmental impact. Wet farming techniques called paludiculture offer an alternative future for fenland farming, and Matt checks out innovative trials growing crops on waterlogged land.
Anita heads out on a wildlife safari on the Great Fen, surveying species by sight and sound to determine the results of an ambitious fenland restoration project. There's also a visit to a heritage landmark of the Fens, Wicken Windmill, a listen to some birdsong with a sound recordist, and a catch-up with a local potato farmer balancing fertile, peaty soil under challenging conditions. And Adam is on his farm in the Cotswolds, checking on his breeding ewes.