At the end of September, Knowledge Exchange Workshop took place in České Budějovice. During the very busy two days, we managed to discuss the state of knowledge in the field of ecological restoration in individual countries, summarize the results of surveys and propose recommendations on how to better disseminate the knowledge of ecological restoration among schools and practitioners. In addition, we showed the participants examples of ecological restoration in the urban environment and enjoyed quite fun.
The TRAIN#ER project is funded by the European Union.
At the end of September, we impatiently waited for sunny weather. It was necessary to sample the faculty garden, and especially to find out what a new plot seeded with "Šumava regional seed mixture" looks like. In the place where the bare land remained due to construction work, we established an experimental flowering meadow this spring using two methods: the sowing of a regional seed mixture, and the application of remnants after hay. The latter is a traditional method that was commonly used in the past. Everything that remained after hay storage in the barn was swept out. This material was very rich in seeds of a variety of species. It seems now, that the sowing of seeds wins as daisies, cornflowers, and carrots have already bloomed in the plot. But the next season will fully show the power of both methods.
Recently, we have intensively dealt with the topic of regional seed mixtures thanks to the project called 'Regional seed mixtures as an effective tool for protecting the diversity of grassland habitats' funded by Norway grants. We are testing various machines for brushing donor stands. And we are not the only ones who deal with this topic. For example, in Prague, they are testing their hand-made brushing machine. We agreed on cooperation and we will compare all the brushing machines at several localities in the Prague region next year.
This year the flower strips in the Stromovka city park in České Budějovice are in great shape. All of them are beautiful and each one is different. You would say: "It's just a carrot ...", but judge yourself from the photos how aesthetic such plants are inside a mown park lawn.
A lot of people visit Carlsbad at the time of the Film Festival but this year an unexpected thing has happened - we visited it too. But only true connoisseurs scorn the red carpet, colonnade, and Vřídlo, pass the hotels PUP and Thermal, and head ..... to the waste dump. As soon as we got out of the car, a car of the Czech TV stopped nearby. Unfortunately, they did not follow us to the waste dump, even though we have a lot to offer. Our new bachelor student, Anička Grambalová, will design a biodiversity roof for the building that will be built on this neglected site. Because we need to know what grows and lives there, we went to the waste dump for the second time. And we were surprised about the number of species occurring in such a place.
Caution! Even the work of a restoration ecologist can be risky! During the vegetation season we will visit a number of sites and during this adventure we are constantly exposed to various dangers - for example, falling into the sand pits, burns from the sun, or on the contrary the all-day rain, scars caused by treacherous flora ... Moreover we must constantly keep our eyes open because large herbivores are often very close.
The result of a project, which arose as a public activity within the participatory projects supported by the city of České Budějovice, is the establishment of other flowering strips, this time near Družba, close to the Church of St. John the Baptist and St. Prokop. The Restoration Ecology Working Group contributed with an expert consultation, the realization was carried out by Vojtěch Študent.
Yesterday, 10th of May, the "Focus group" activity took place in Prague. A group of people dealing with ecological restoration in the Czech Republic discussed the necessity and need for its integration into vocational education and training. From our point of view, the discussion was very interesting and beneficial. The event also included an excursion with examples of good practice.
