Small-scale wetlands in agricultural landscapes are not only important for amphibians, birds and mammals, but are also home to many species of butterflies and insects. Orchids and other rare plants often grow here. In Holuby’s Kopanice, a site of European importance, we also find burnets (Sanguisorba) which are host plants to the rare Blues butterflies.
On Wednesday, June 14, 2023, a total of 20,000 small sturgeon juveniles were released into the Danube as part of the LIFE Living Rivers project. Sturgeons were released in three localities of their natural habitat – below the Čunovo dam, near the village of Sap and on Veľkololéský ostrov. Direct release of sturgeon fry into our rivers is one of the tools to strengthen the populations of this endangered fish species.
For several years now, we have successfully grazed sheep and donkeys at Devín Castle, and this year we managed to expand the pasture to the Devín castle Rock – which is located in the southern part, directly under the walls.
Sheep grazing has a long-term tradition in Spiš, and for its restoration in the meadows of Spišské Podhradie, several entities sterted to cooperate – the conservation association BROZ, the Administration of the Slovak Raj National Park, the city of Spišské Podhradie, and the Bishopric of Spišské with its seat in Spišské Podhradie at the Spišská Kapitula.
In addition to the successful activities in the Strážovské vrchy, as part of the LIFE Panalp project, we also started to restore rare grass habitats in the Samll Carpathians. In the westernmost Slovak mountain range, this spring, in cooperation with the Museum of the City of Bratislava, we started grazing on the Devín Castle Rock.
On 16 May, together with experts from the Water Research Institute, we participated in the meeting of the Slovak-Hungarian Boundary Waters Commission to present the plans, visions and activities of our Danube LIFE projects
On Monday, sheep of our original breed – valaška – traveled to Spiš to get to know the new barn and meet the shepherd. As early as next week, we are going to release them at a beautiful location, on a meadow near Spišské Podhradie with a view of UNESCO location Spišský hrad.
In September 2022, the first Microtus II study tour, previously postponed due to the pandemic was finally organized. Together with our stakeholders, we explored the wetlands of Balaton-felvidéki National Park in Hungary. Around Lake Balaton
In Beckovské skalice we have started grazing goats and sheep on rocky and less accessible sites in cooperation with Salaš Beckov. Beckov Farm, on the other hand, grazes cows on flat ground. This will create different grazing areas with different plants, which in turn are preferred by different insects.
The project team (BROZ and PRIF UK) headed to explore the Netherlands in September 2022. The reason is that a relative of the pannonian root vole lives here. Another endemic subspecies – Microtus oeconomus arenicola has found a refuge there after the ice age.