A helping hand for the Kleine Au mire

Volunteers from all over Bavaria participated in two action days in the National Park Bavarian Forest

This summer, a dozens of volunteers helped to counteract the drainage of the Kleine Au near Altschönau.  For this purpose, the National Park Bavarian Forest had organised two action days on mire restoration. The bog Kleine Au is a project site of the transboundary project “Life for Mires” and was already extensively restored in 2016. Now it is monitored within the project. Small-scale restoration measures like this will help to permanently improve the condition of the bog. The two action days were planned and carried out by Luca Michels, as part of his voluntary ecological year, which he completed at the national park administration. The team of helpers consisted of all current participants in the voluntary ecological year of the youth organisation „Bund Naturschutz (JBN)” and travelled from all parts of Bavaria for this.

Three actions in three different parts of the mire took place:

During the two days, a smaller, still open drainage ditch at the side of the mire was closed with a sheetpile-wall and a dam filling made of peat. This is to counteract the still ongoing drainage and to further raise the ground water level in the surrounding area.

In addition, two sheetpile-walls from the earlier restoration, which had been exposed by red deer crossing, were covered with fresh peat to maintain the damming effect and prevent further degradation of the wood. The dam was then replanted with sphagnum mosses and grasses for more stability. Branches and deadwood were used to create a migration barrier for the red deer.

In another part, spruce branches and crowns were carried out of the bog, which had fallen in there during forestry work. This aims reduce nutrient input and acidification through decomposition of the deadwood.

Conclusion of the action days: The work was a complete success. Everyone helped with a lot of joy and energy for action and thus made a contribution to saving the mire!