On Saturday 11th July the "Scythe Course" organised by the LIFE project took place in Monschau-Höfen. The speaker Jan-Roeland Vos imparted his extensive knowledge about meadow mowing with muscle power. In any case, the participants were satisfied with their work in the afternoon!
On May 18 we picked seeds from the lower branches of the old wych elm in Rohren. Two small but full bags of seeds were selected in the evening for well developed seed fruits...
We had actually imagined the beginning of the forest restructuring differently. It was planned to remove about 4 hectares of spruce forest in winter 2019/20 on the slopes of the Rur valley. The extreme bark beetle infestation throughout Germany put a damper on our plans. At the moment we found neither a forestry company for felling nor a sawmill for processing. The processing of damaged wood has priority.
The LIFE project area "Upper Rur Valley" is home to the orchid of the year 2020 - the Broad-leaved Marsh Orchid (scientific name: Dactylorhiza majalis)....
The report on the forest condition 2019 for the federal member state of NRW has been published. This report shows in figures what is obvious when driving through our forest landscape.
The Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) is a typical butterfly of the Eifel mountains. It is characteristic for diverse grasslands and a flagship species for our efforts to protect traditionally used meadows. The butterflies are in need of a rich diversity of flowering herbs, the caterpillars feed on some specific meadow grasses only.
The meeting of the representatives of the North Rhine-Westphalian LIFE projects took place from 10 to 11 October. LIFE Patches & Corridors contributed in a lecture worth knowing on the tendering procedure for the elimination of himalayan balsam.
