The Effectiveness of Ditch Management for Wildlife in the Broads and Somerset Levels & Moors ESAs

Grazing marsh ditches are characteristic of a number of lowland Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs). Agreement holders in these ESAs were expected to manage their ditches to maintain and enhance their value for wildlife. Following the publication, in 1997, of an English Nature report on the deterioration in the botanical quality of grazing marsh ditches in the Broads ESA, MAFF contracted ADAS to identify and report on ditch management issues of relevance to ESAs.