Team helps rare Fen Orchid flourish

A team of volunteers from UK Power Networks spent a day helping one of Britain’s rarest wildflowers flourish again on the Broads. 

Sixteen members of the UK Power Networks planning team, based in Bury St Edmunds, visited Upton Broad, which belongs to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and spent the whole day raking cut reeds.

Their efforts will help the Fen Orchid and other wildflowers grow back next year. 

In the UK, the critically-endangered species is found only in the sand dunes of South Wales and the fens of the Broads.

Conservation work has led to the orchid (pictured above) going from just over a few dozen plants at Upton Broad, to several thousand plants in recent years.

Planning manager, Ian Turpin, said: “It was a great day providing a time for the team to engage in the great outdoors whilst helping out the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

“By the end of the day we had raked about the size of two football pitches.”

The team used one of their Donate A Days, where the company pays for employees to have two paid days a year to volunteer in the local community.

James Hogg, corporate partnerships manager at the Trust said: “This work is so helpful to us, with an amazing group of 16 able to make a real impact on a substantial task in the October sunshine. 

“Fen management requires regular cutting and raking to preserve the nutrient-poor conditions that encourage rare plant species such as the fen orchid, which, thanks to conservation work like that delivered by this group, has increased at Upton from a handful of plants a few years ago to over 3,400 on the site in 2025. 

“It was a really hard working team, making a real difference for Norfolk’s unique wildlife.”