Involved volunteers? Another record

Volunteer work in wetlands is attractive for visitors of the National Park

Public events are an integral part of the LIFE for MIRES project. We show the work on the restored wetlands and streams during excursions not only to experts, but also to primary school pupils, students, visitors to the national park and local residents. This year, we welcomed 314 people on walks with an explanation of the restoration of wetlands, while 108 of them were professionals focusing on restoration of water regime.

However, some participants are directly involved in manual work, which helps us a lot in speeding up restoration works. They carry building materials to inaccessible places and the company can thus proceed many times faster. In the waterlogged parts of the wetland, volunteers even build wooden dams themselves. After the fresh restoration works are tested by first thawing season, we set out with volunteers to repair the gaps in eroded fillings around dams and at the same time we plant wetland vegetation in such places so that the soil overgrows and strengthens. Because during the restoration process, the water changes its runoff, here and there it comes to shaping of small streams. All these small but very important works are necessary for a good overall restoration result.

Every year, the interest in wetland volunteering is greater, which was also shown in this year’s statistics. 339 participants went to our so-called Days for Mires. In 2022, we will celebrate the Year of Wetlands in the Šumava National Park and, of course, we are planning other volunteer events. We will be happy if you sign up and experience firsthand how fulfilling a feeling can be when a person helps water return to the places from which it was literally driven away in the past.

Check a gallery of photos from this restoration season: