Willow Tree Fen has been transformed from arable land growing beans and cereal to more traditional fenland landscape of shallow meres, seasonally flooded pastures, hay meadows and reedbeds.

At one-time the south Lincolnshire fens were a wilderness landscape. However, very little of this wild fenland now remains. Occupying an area of 274 acres, the most significant remaining fragments of wild fenland are Baston Fen and Thurlby Fen Slipe nature reserves. Whilst these two reserves are important for the protection of rare and threatened species of wetland flora and fauna, they are too small to support some of the larger fenland birds and animals, and possibly too small to cope with a changing climate.

Willow Tree Fen is managed and owned by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. By purchasing the site in 2009, the Trust increased Lincolnshire’s wild fenland by 200%. Significantly, the nearby River Glen and Counter Drain provide wildlife corridors between Baston Fen and Thurlby Fen Slipe and Willow Tree Fen.