The Broads Society is a waterway society

Waterway society

A Waterway society is a society, association, charitable trust, club, trust or "Friends" group involved in the restoration, preservation, use and enjoyment of waterways, e.g. a canal, river, navigation or other waterway, and their associated buildings and structures, e.g...

 in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 and Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, UK.

The society was founded in 1956 to provide a focus for anyone interested in the region, e.g. navigators, naturalists, farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

s, residents and visitors. It campaigned in the 1960s and 1970s for special status for The Broads

The Broads

The Broads are a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Broads, and some surrounding land were constituted as a special area with a level of protection similar to a UK National Park by The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act of 1988...

, and in 1988 the area was designated a National Park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 after the passing of the Norfolk & Suffolk Broads Act 1988.

Today the Broads Society has a membership of about 1600, and it monitors pressures on the unique Broads environment

Environment (biophysical)

The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...

, as well as commenting on planning applications. It is represented on the Broads Authority

Broads Authority

The Broads Authority is the agency which has statutory responsibility for the Broads in England. Originally, the Nature Conservancy Council , pressed for a special authority to manage the Broads which had been neglected for a long time. In 1978, the forerunner to the present-day Broads Authority...

's Broads Forum.

The Broads Society became a joint owner of the eel

Eel

Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...

 sett at Candle Dyke which is the last working sett in the East of England.

The Society's volunteers are known as "Broadsword"; they endeavour to improve the sailing conditions, and encourage the re-colonisation of banks by reedswamp.

The Mission Statement of the Broads Society:
"Our members share a common purpose to help secure a sustainable future for The Broads as a unique and protected landscape in which leisure, tourism and the local economy can thrive in harmony with the natural environment".