Layman's Report
One of the last actions of the project was the publication of the Layman's Report, which took place in December 2023.
The Layman's Report is a document describing and summarizing the project, but written in non-technical language.
Conference summarizing the project
On September 26-28 this year, a conference summarizing the project "Active protection of endangered species of amphibians and reptiles in Natura 2000 areas in Europe" (LIFE17 NAT/PL/000011) was held in Ryn. The activities carried out under the project by individual beneficiaries (Romincka Forest Landscape Park, the "Man and Nature" Association and Amphi International ApS from Denmark) were presented by subsequent speakers.
The conference was opened by RFLP Director Jaromir Krajewski, who then reported on the course of the project and the goals achieved. Due to the absence of representatives of the Danish beneficiary, he also reported on the "Danish" part of the activities.
Then Anna Krzysztofiak gave a lecture entitled: "Active protection of amphibians and reptiles", Ewa Jędrzejewska familiarized us with the results of monitoring the ponds and wintering areas created as part of the project, Grzegorz Górecki discussed the monitoring of the recreated breeding ground for the European pond turtle and the culverts built for these reptiles under the roads, and finally Lech Krzysztofiak presented two lectures: "Amphibians and reptiles in the light of the Alien Species Act" - a topic all the more timely as a new act regulating these problems has recently come into force; and "Further perspectives for the protection of herpetofauna". The lecture part ended with a discussion.
On the second day, a field session took place, during which participants could see the results of the project in the field.
Restoring the habitat of the European pond turtle
In January 2023, work on restoring the habitat of the European pond turtle - an endangered species on a European scale, in the form of a shallow reservoir with an area of approx. 400 m 2 and a depth of up to 2.0 meters was completed. The works consisted in clearing trees and bushes from the swampy area and excavating about 1200 m 3 of soil and planting it near the reservoir. The reservoir was created in the Maskulińskie Forestry Inspectorate, Leśnictwo Baranowo (Mikolajki commune). Until recently, there was water in this site, and it was a place of hibernation for pond turtles.
The water deficit in the environment and secondary succession have caused the entire swamp to dry up in recent years. The treatment carried out as part of the project "Active protection of rare amphibian and reptile species in the Natura 2000 sites in Europe" aims to restore the original function of this site. We hope that the works carried out will keep water in this place all year round, and that pond turtles will be able to stay and hibernate there.
Photograph by Lech Krzysztofiak