The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding.
Wicken Fen
England population density and low elevation coastal zones. The Fens are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.
A windpump at Wicken Fen
The former by-laws of Deeping Fen at Pode Hole near Spalding
In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants. More in general, the word can be used for any low-lying and seasonally waterlogged terrain. In Europe and in agricultural literature low-lying meadows that require draining and embanked polderlands are also referred to as marshes or marshland.
Marshlands are often noted within wetlands, as seen here in the New Jersey Meadowlands at Lyndhurst, New Jersey, U.S.
Marsh in shallow water on a lakeshore
White water lilies are a typical marsh plant in European areas of deeper water.
Many kinds of birds nest in marshes; this one is a yellow-headed blackbird.
