Try to guess: what warms the hearts of the Subpannonic project team for sure?
After years of targeted work on pasture restoration in areas of European significance, we have faced many smaller and larger challenges. Overcoming them was often not easy. However, our motivation has always been and remains the springtime.
Since the first warm rays touch the ground, which was still recently shaded by overgrown dense shrubs, rare plant species like Spring pheasant’s eye or Pasqueflower peek out in many places. Furthermore, several species of orchids gradually develop their leaf rosettes. The increasing numbers of these species show us in a very beautiful way that our efforts were truly worth it!
The success of the increase in the abundance of light-demanding species is undoubtedly due to the restoration of grazing. Besides other benefits for biodiversity, the overgrowth causing shading of originally sunny habitats is kept ‘in check’. However, during flowering, it is necessary to diligently protect rare plants. It’s mainly goats that would greatly enjoy grazing on the flowers. We implement protection primarily in two ways. The first is the temporary exclusion of grazing throughout the entire flowering period of rare species. The second method can be applied only in cases where revitalized habitats are re-colonizing by these plants so their numbers are low. Here, local fencing of individuals is involved. Indeed, grazing in protected areas has several specifics.
We thank the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic for cooperation in protecting rare plant species.
