Norfolk Broads - the end is nigh

[Paul mabbott]

It's a long time since I've been to the Broads (have some happy memories) but things are looking bad now:
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/health/science/broads-damaged-by-decades-neglect-$1143251.htm

I know they have problems in drought years but they now seem to have difficulties from sheer numbers of motor vehicles (car and boat).

[kshotton45]

I was reading about it on the BBC site, here....

BBC NEWS | England | Broads area 'damaged by neglect'

Pollution, rising sea levels and water demands are threatening the already damaged Suffolk and Norfolk Broads.

Keith.

[naturelover]

you know what i say, close it off to trafic cars and anything with a engine, then let it come back to the beauty it was,no better still close it off compleatly untill its got what it had,humans are spoiling this world nothing else.

[John]

Originally Posted by naturelover

you know what i say, close it off to trafic cars and anything with a engine, then let it come back to the beauty it was,no better still close it off compleatly untill its got what it had,humans are spoiling this world nothing else.

And you truly believe in that do you? The mind boggles.

Do you think stopping that just in Norfolk will have the right impact for that area. Don't you think that world wide effects may be having adverse effects in that area, as well as many other areas. Are you going to stop everything mechanical throughout the world.

It is over the top comments like this that does no good for serious debate.

John

[naturelover]

ok keep your hair on, i was just trying to say if humans stayed away from the broads for a while it might make a diference, it states that its due to neglect,if we havnt done it who has?

[John]

Well actually you didn't say keep the humans away. You said keep everything with an engine away. Big difference there.

Norfolk is one of many areas where better management is needed but overall many things that are happening are happening world wide, and yes it probably is all to do with humnans, but which humans do you target.

The Broads have got busier with boat traffic and I suppose you could cut that back. Cut that back and you lessen the car traffic that has to get there but how significant would that be.

To be honest extremes, as you suggest, are unworkable due the logistics of imposing it but certainly a long term study is needed and the findings implemented.

I go to Norfolk regularly (not the Broads so much) and it such a wonderful area to visit (I visited twice in September) so I know it very well. I would hate to think that I was banned from going there along with others.

If that happened just think what would happen to the local economy. Just think of the lack of money that would be generated at most of the Norfolk reserves from Membership charges etc to wildlife bodies such as Norfolk Wildlife Trust and also from admission charges.

We have to hold our hands up and realise that the Broads will never go back to its former glory so we have to put things in place that will at least stop it getting any worse. That will be hard, especially as the seas are rising so much. It won't be long before certain areas are going to be engulfed, and lost, from the seas breaching the sea defences. This is one of the reasons why so much money and effort is being put into the Lakenheath reserve. They are creating an environment that will hopefully be an alternative place where the birds will go.

I don't know what the answer is, and I don't think anyone else does either. They can pull things out of the air and say that is what they think is the causes but who really knows. The answers are not going to be found quickly, and I wonder if we have already gone too far to put things right, but certainly investigations need to be done over a long term and hopefully answers can be found.

John

Originally Posted by naturelover

ok keep your hair on, i was just trying to say if humans stayed away from the broads for a while it might make a diference, it states that its due to neglect,if we havnt done it who has?

[coasty]

Originally Posted by naturelover

you know what i say, close it off to trafic cars and anything with a engine, then let it come back to the beauty it was,no better still close it off compleatly untill its got what it had,humans are spoiling this world nothing else.

I sympathise with your view however lets not forget that the broads are man made. They are part of our changing landscape.
In my work as civil engineer I visit Norfolk all the time. I work for a company based in that part of the world. I see first hand the efforts that are made to balance the demands of our society with the desire to retain as much as possible of the old.

I also dont hold with the idea that if you leave things entirely alone then everything will be rosy. Like most of Britain the broads are a carefully managed area. If man stopped managing it then who could predict what there would be there in even 20 years time. However I do accept that in some cases man has managed things badly. But I do think things are improving.

[naturelover]

thankyou john and coasty for exsplaining it to me,i have never been there myself,i didnt realise it was man made i thought it was naturel and getting ruind by too many visiters.

[Blackbrook Eye]

What the sea giveth the sea taketh away

[Pagan_Dave]

People don't deserve to have it if they can't be arsed to look after it!!!

[John]

What kind of statement is that? Do you realise the hard work that is currently going on in and around Norfolk with preserving habitats, creating habitats, monitoring breeding, etc. Have you ever been to Norfolk. Have you actually looked at what is going on over there.

It's very easy making statements like that but by doing so you are knocking the excellent work by volunteers and visitors to the area.

A lot of the problems created in Norfolk, and elsewhere for that matter, are probably stemmed from problems created elsewhere, i.e rising seas through Global Warming etc.

John

Originally Posted by Pagan_Dave

People don't deserve to have it if they can't be arsed to look after it!!!

[kshotton45]

It's good that the problems been highlighted. Now let's hope that the government will help financially to fund a programme to stabilise the Broads. I've only visited that area twice. It's a stunning area and needs helping.
It's wrong to try to stop people visiting as it's a working area and needs an income.
Provisionally, I shall be in that area again in June 2008.

Keith.

[coasty]

I think it is inevitable that some parts will be lost back to the sea, However I think other areas may will be flooded and new habitat formed.
The area has never really stopped changing. I think its far worse to try to resist change than to allow change to happen but manage it.

[FlyAgaric]

Originally Posted by naturelover

you know what i say, close it off to trafic cars and anything with a engine, then let it come back to the beauty it was,no better still close it off compleatly untill its got what it had,humans are spoiling this world nothing else.

I totally agree with you, something needs to be done, something drastic, because losing our beautiful nature is a lot more drastic and devastating that banning cars. But some people just are not willing to do that, because they don’t want to give up their comfortable convenient life styles, oh and it would also effect the big businesses money making ventures, so I doubt it will happen.

I think cars should be banned from many areas there (with the exception of ambulances ect), but an alternative transport system should be put into place.

[Pagan_Dave]

John,

I wasn't knocking volunteers whatsoever so please don't put words into my mouth (or keyboard )

I have been to the Norfolk broads many times and have also witnessed leisure boat owners dumping their rubbish overboard and spoiling the very environment that they are mainly there for; at the end of the day volunteers can only do so much, and it is much up to the leisure seekers to pay equal respect to the their local environment instead of spoiling it.

Regards

Originally Posted by John

What kind of statement is that? Do you realise the hard work that is currently going on in and around Norfolk with preserving habitats, creating habitats, monitoring breeding, etc. Have you ever been to Norfolk. Have you actually looked at what is going on over there.

It's very easy making statements like that but by doing so you are knocking the excellent work by volunteers and visitors to the area.

A lot of the problems created in Norfolk, and elsewhere for that matter, are probably stemmed from problems created elsewhere, i.e rising seas through Global Warming etc.

John

[naturelover]

very well said pagan dave,you have said what i was trying to say thanks.

[Varan Komodosky]

Give it to the Army to use as a firing range/training ground. As an organisation, they have the best record of wildlife preservation in this country (oops, England that is, sorry my Scottish and Welsh chums.)

[aestarte]

I totally loved the Norfolk Broads as a child it's a shame but I totally respect the work being done there but could I just ask is there any education going on I mean for the young and older alike. Fi. X X X X

[Interpreter]

Could education be the answer? Teach people, from an early age, to respect all things? I have just visited an area where a wooden hide has been provided and access given to all people at no charge. At the bottom of the hide is a large rubbish bin. Next to that is the car park. Visitors come to the site, have a look around and then just dump their empty Coke tins on the ground next to their cars. What you take onto a site, you should take away from the site.

[Paul mabbott]

You have a bit of quandary there because if sea-levels rise and land levels fall you will get the sea flooding in at the mouth of the Yar and perhaps elsewhere and then then much of the broads system will become brackish and a totally different ecosystem to that which we know.

So while, in general, I'm in favour of allowing the sea to return to its natural levels, I wonder if we might need a bit of sea defence to preserve the broads completely?

Originally Posted by coasty

I think it is inevitable that some parts will be lost back to the sea, However I think other areas may will be flooded and new habitat formed.
The area has never really stopped changing. I think its far worse to try to resist change than to allow change to happen but manage it.

[Paul mabbott]

This is one of those things where everyone is right, perhaps.

I have had contact with the Broads over many years and know that it has had its ups and down (not just in water level). I think that many of its problems are applicable to other Areas of Outstanding Beauty and National Parks. There are just too many vistors and, especially those visitors tend to use motorised transport (car and/or boat). It would be fairly easy to license the numbers of boats on the broads and to control the balance of motor to non-motor boats.

It would be fairly easy to restrict parking (and therefore entry) for cars to the Broads (whenever I've visited, I've gone by train - there are also plentiful 'bus services). This would avoid (or reduce) people going on day trips - these must be a major problem of congestion and pollution?). There are so many knock-on things perhaps - does anyone run tour groups on larger (but environmentally friendly and slow travelling) boats - for educated views of the waterways? Are any of the waterway 'service stations' environmentally friendly, selling organic and locally produced food? If not, make them be so!

I hopw that thing can be turned around because I see the same problems in other national parks - you can go to some and see thousands of cars parked, people travelling over the easiest paths leaving their rubbish as they move, supporting junk-food purveyors rather than local, environmentally-supportive businesses ....

Originally Posted by Pagan_Dave

John,

I wasn't knocking volunteers whatsoever so please don't put words into my mouth (or keyboard )

I have been to the Norfolk broads many times and have also witnessed leisure boat owners dumping their rubbish overboard and spoiling the very environment that they are mainly there for; at the end of the day volunteers can only do so much, and it is much up to the leisure seekers to pay equal respect to the their local environment instead of spoiling it.

Regards