SOS/BirdLife Slovakia invites you to take part in upcoming volunteer events within the LIFE 4 STEPPE BIRDS project focused on monitoring and helping steppe birds:

• May 8–11: Spring Ornithological Camp, SPA Senianske rybníky
  
• July 31 – August 3: Summer Ornithological Camp, SPA Senianske rybníky
  

During the second weekend of November 2022, together with the association Pre Prírodu, the JARO Group and the Administration of the PLA Biele Karpaty, we organized a volunteer event called Mission Apollo 11. It is probably unprecedented in Slovakia at the moment, as more than 70 people from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and France took part in the active management of the Babiná natural reservation on Saturday. The main purpose of the conservation weekend was to restore rare dry grassland habitats and thus prepare the ground for the return of the king of butterflies, the mountain Apollo (Parnassius apollo), after which the event was named.

We repeated the Mission Apollo 11 exactly five years later, as we met on November 11 in 2017 at the nearby Vršatské Bradlá. Thanks to that, probably the largest Slovak population of mountain Apollo lives there today. A little over 50 volunteers took part in the event at the time, and the increase in the number of volunteers positively surprised us. “In recent years, we have seen a rather decreasing interest of the public in similar activities connected with the management of protected areas. The only exceptions are events focused on garbage collection or tree planting. However, these alone will not reverse the ongoing loss of biodiversity, and the second of them may even be counterproductive in this regard,” said our colleague Jakub Cíbik about the event.

One of Saturday’s activities was correcting “planting” mistakes from the past. In the middle of the last century, the rock cliffs on Babiná were reforested with Forest pine in an attempt to „revive“ the barren rocks. Today, however, we paradoxically point to the fact that non-forest heat and drought-tolerant plant communities on cliffs belong to the most species-rich habitats in our country. At the same time, a large number of invertebrates, including rare butterflies are also tied to xerotherms, as these habitats are professionally called. In addition, the volunteers cleared the plató above the former quarry of overgrown trees, where a lot of White stonecrops, food plants of mountain Apollo caterpillars, grow. During the event, we managed to restore about a hectare of rare habitat, which wa destroyed not only because of afforestation, but also for spontaneous overgrowth due to the disappearance of grazing on the cliffs. It was a common and important part of the livelihood of local residents until the 1950s.

Restoration of grazing in cooperation with local stakeholders is also one of the goals of the Life PANALP project, from which the weekend event was financially supported. Today, in the White Carpathians, we graze herds of goats on the nearby Vršatec and Krasín nature reservations. We would also like to try for the return of grazing animals in Babiná, and at the same time we hope that the butterfly king will soon be able to return here with them.

After the weekend event, we conclude that we have once again successfully managed to take “a small step for humanity, but a big step for nature”. This modified statement of Neil Armstrong from the real Apollo 11 Mission also illustrates well why similar conservation projects are often underappreciated by the public. “From the point of view of humanity, they are really only a small step and usually do not bring us any social progress, nor do we get new schools, hospitals or highways thanks to them. However, their primary intention is to take important steps for nature, which is increasingly threatened by humans. And thanks to the involvement of seven dozen volunteers in the White Carpathians, we were able to do that over the weekend without a doubt.”

Photos: Jakub Cíbik, Adriana Hološková

In recent days, our volunteers have been going to the Bratislava airport to feed the ground squirrels. Every roughly 20-30 meters they throw a little sunflower to get them used to going to these places. We are planning to catch ground squirrels there and transport them to other locations in order to strengthen several populations in southern and western Slovakia.

Bratislava Airport is home of the strongest Slovak population of ground squirrels, with 10,000 individuals. This is one third of the total number of 28,000 squirrels that we currently have in Slovakia. A total of 8,000 ground squirrels live in two other locations on the Muránska Planina and in the Slovak Kras. Two-thirds of individuals live in three places in Slovakia, which says a lot about the small numbers of other populations in the remaining 39 localities. Because of this, there is a high degree of inbreeding in them, few young individuals and they also suffer from various diseases and genetic defects (we have also recorded albine ground squirrels).

From the genetic study of ZOO Bojnice (in cooperation with TUZVO), the key solution for the project was to genetically strengthen the population of these small ground squirrels. In the past, migrations of individuals between families happened naturally, as ground squirrel colonies were only a few kilometers apart. Today, the closest population to Bratislava is in Kuchyna (40 km) and another in Chtelnica (70 km), and there is a highway and other barriers between them. That’s why they need our help.

Now is the best time for it, as the ground squirrels have only recently woken up and have not yet had time to mate.

In addition to captures at the Bratislava airport, from which we will strengthen the populations in western Slovakia, we are also planning captures on the Muránská plain and in the Slovak Kras, from which we will strengthen closest populations.

In the middle of February, the volunteers had met to help again the pasture species in Site of Community Importance Veľký Kopec. The locality is known by the occurrence of steppe and forest-steppe habitats. Local farmer and activist Mr. Arnold Dócsa through LIFE Sub-pannonic project returned the goat grazing on SCI Veľký Kopec, which contributed the increase of occurrence of protected plant species like green-veined orchid. We also assume the improvement on status of great pasqueflower population. 

In any case it is still necessary to remove volunteer wood species and then to give a space for rare steppe habitats, which can goats better maintain. Volunteers succeeded to reduce spreading wood species and invasive black locust in several parts within area, which were after that burned in a pile. The leaved solitaire trees on the edge of protected area returned the former landscape aesthetics resembling the open wood pastures, on which are bounded various animal species (European stag beetle, smooth snake, cavity-nesting birds).

Do you know where is the locality named Pieskovcové chrbty?

As our volunteer from geocaching community said about this locality „there are no geocaches here! “. However, the geocaches are really missing here, there is a beautiful undulating landscape of Cerová Vrchovina and its rare biodiversity. However, we as organisation are mainly focused on Bratislava region, we also concentrate the attention on other parts of Slovakia to help nature. Moreover, thanks to LIFE Subpannonic  project we have revived the abandoned pastures for over 30 years near Jesenské (district Rimavská Sobota). The locality became a part of Natura 2000 network namely as Site of Community Importance Pieskovcové chrbty because of rare dry pasture habitats and species. 

So far, we fight way through many barriers in grazing return to most parts of this locality, we performed the reduction of overgrown shrubs and trees on small parts. Together with Administration of Landscape Protected Area Cerová Vrchovina, volunters and geocachers from OZ Permoníci, we reduced the wood species overgrown from hill with occurence of pasque flowers in Drňa. 

This activity would never happen without Bálint family, that has farm few metres from Site of Community Importance Pieskovcové chrbty. They helped not only with wood species reducing, but they are also going to graze cattle on managed locality. It provides that the locality will not overgrow by wood species again and improve the occurrence of pasque flowers. 

If you want to join our volunteer activities, do not hesitate, and contact us on broz@broz.sk.

Cross-border partnership for the Danube floodplains

The current project Restoration and management of Danube floodplain habitats is not the first on which BROZ cooperates with the Hungarian partner National park Danube-Ipel. In the past, we have joined together an international network of protected areas on the Danube called Danubeparks and in the frame of this partnership we already participate in the fourth project. In addition, we work together to protect endemic species and habitats in dry grassland areas (LIFE endemic PANALP).

National park Danube-Ipel was founded in 1997 and is one of the most diverse in Hungary due to the fact that the hills meet the lowlands and the river here. Therefore it is interesting not only from a nature protection point of view but also in terms of nature tourism. The role of the Hungarian partner in the current LIFE Danube Floodplains project is to ensure cooperation on specific conservation measures in the Hungarian part of the project area, as well as awareness rising about the protection of the Danube floodplains among the professional and general public.

The main activity of the national park is the preparation of genetically original planting material and the establishment of a forest nursery, which was founded in the village Dejtár. The national park obtained material from Black poplar trees (Populus nigra) of the original genotypes, with seedlings displaying a high survival rate. In addition, the source trees along the Danube river were mapped and the cuttings obtained from them were used to grow seedlings on the grounds of the state forest nursery and used for further planting. The trees were planted in Dejtár a Rácalmás. In addition to poplars other species are also planted in floodplain forests in the Hungarian part of the project area –  Narrow-leaved ash Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. pannonica, European white elm Ulmus laevis and Common oak Quercus robur, so far in a total of more than 12 500 trees.

In addition to the planting itself, previous modifications to some sites are required, such as the removal of 450 tons of waste from an area of 7.1 ha on the Island of Háros. The national park also performs regular removal of the non-native species as Ash-leaved maple Negundo aceroides, Japanese knotweed Fallopia japonica or Goldenrods Solidago sp. (until now on the surface of 8 ha). Elimination of invasive species was carried out by spraying a herbicide solution in a low concentration. The method has proven to be time and cost-effective with almost 100% success. It is also necessary to provide after-planting care of the trees. Seedlings are treated with a new ecological game repellent. The remedy has proven to be very effective against biting by wild boars and deer. All these activities contribute to the optimization of the wood composition of floodplain forests.

National Park Danube-Ipel devotes a large part of its involvement in the project to awareness rising about nature protection and the natural richness of the Danube floodplains. Every year it organizes a cultural and nature festival in Dömös with demonstrations of traditional crafts, pony rides, archery, concerts and other performances. The national park also addresses the public with the topics of nature protection via the magazine Cincér and other publications and promotional materials.

As part of the excursions organized in the Hungarian part of the project area, guides were first specially trained for this purpose. The national park focuses mainly on school-age children. Bicycle and canoe trips are also included in the program. In addition, the idea of protecting the Danube landscape is spreading among young people thanks to a travelling exhibition. Its information panels are accompanied by a documentary movie called “’The birth of a national park” and students can verify the acquired knowledge by filling out a questionnaire.

Whether it is practical nature conservation in the field, scientific research, exchange of experience and expertise or presentation to the public, our protected areas in the Slovak and Hungarian part of the area along the Danube are very similar and therefore we can benefit a lot from the partnership in joint projects.

One of the goals of the LIFE PANALP project is the involvement of volunteers in nature conservation. In this way, event participants will not only help nature, but also learn a lot about active care of target habitats and species. Information thus reaches the public through the experiences of individuals. We have therefore organized several brigades in autumn 2021.

In cooperation with the Administration of the PLA Biele Karpaty, we mowed and cleaned the location of the endemic Tephroseris longifolia subsp. moravica in the Sites of Community Importance (SCI) Vršatské bradlá. We thank twenty volunteers, especially geocachers, for their help. As part of another brigade within the scope of the Biele Karpaty PLA, we worked with volunteer nature guards at the SCI Omšenská baba.

In cooperation with the PLA Strážovské vrchy, we helped again at the location of the ash tree, this time in the village of Čavoj in the SCI Temešská skala. The event in Vrchteplá in Súľovské vrchy was graced by the rich participation of volunteers from the surrounding area and again from the ranks of geocachers.

At the end of November and the beginning of December, brigades were held at SCI Temešská skala 3 times, for a total of 4 days. Geocachers helped again, but students from the grammar school in Bratislava, local volunteer rangers and participants of the brigade in Vrchteplá also surprised us. Everyone got involved with enthusiasm and interest in saving valuable non-forest areas.

In SCI Beckovské Skalice, we just joined the brigade of voluntary nature rangers (organized by the Administration of the White Karpaty PLA). We informed them about the values of the territory and the planned activities in cooperation with the local farmer, who will hopefully soon graze the valuable areas of the territory.

As part of the brigades, we focused on drought-loving and heat-loving non-forest habitats, we talked about the development of the country, why forestlessness has its irreplaceable place and great importance in it. We promised each other a meeting in the spring-summer period, when we will show the results of our often strenuous work on an excursion.

Thank you all for your help and we look forward to more volunteer events!

If you would also like to get involved in nature conservation as a volunteer, contact us at broz@broz.sk.

Volunteers from OZ Permoníci – the geocachers as well as other volunteers visited the locality Pánsky Diel for the 20th time! By their willingness they helped to develop the protection of targetted species and habitats.  Pánsky Diel is a favourite part of SCI Biskupické Luhy, where is the realization of the current activity of LIFE Sub-pannonic project – the grazing management by sheeps and goats. 

The name of volunteer’s action and also CITO geocaching action is „Nippers“ because of the grazing expansion on this locality is blocked by several layers of netting wire. It was a part of forest fences that had been used in accordance of silvicultural experiments in the past. Currently, they are not performing its purpose and act as a barrier for animal migration so it is inevitable to disassemble it for support of the pasture habitats expansion. It is not simple, because the fence is sporadically under the ground, what complicates its disassembling. In this consequence is necessary to use “nipping tools” like pincers or pliers.

We are continued with volunteer’s action so join us! For joining to BROZ‘s mailing list about volunteer’s actions write to mikulova@broz.sk

In the end of September, the dry-thermophilic pastures in south of Eastern Slovakia was visited again for a second time by volunteers. The Site of Community Importance Tarbucka was established for a purpose to protect and to improve favourable conservation status of species and habitats of European interest. 

This area needs the special attendance as regards targeted management focused on conservation of natural values like reducing invasive and volunteer wood species. With the absence of grazing, they had spread around and then directly threaten the existence of protected species and habitats of Tarbucka. Volunteers accordingly continued on previous action of reducing shrubs and invasive black locust.

In the presence, the protected species and habitats within area are no longer in danger due to LIFE Sub-pannonic project application and especially due to local farmer Mr. Kulčár, who returned the goat grazing here. Goats beside the favourable influence on dry-thermophillic species and habitats are able to manage with younger sprouts of wood species as well as with invasive black locust, but they are not possible to manage with thicker wood species or thickets. We believe, that by our volunteer’s action we helped nature a little and goats can graze larger area because #Grazing_is_amazing