ABSTRACT
The South Yorkshire Fens, once England’s third largest fenland, and an abundant hunting ground for waterfowl, was ultimately drained and transformed into farmland. More recently, the South Yorkshire Biodiversity Research Program has embarked on projects to map the extent of the original fens, and restore the fens (Rotherham and Harrison, Chapter 13,this volume). This train of events is astonishing to an Asia-based observer, fi rst, at the initial self-denial of wetland resources by the past residents of Yorkshire. Astonishment continues at the rediscovery of the fen by their descendants, and their growing efforts today at restoring this thoroughly dry land to a wetland for future English peoples.
