Workshop: Restoration of wetlands, rivers and springs in protected areas and productive forests

Conference on wetland restoration monitoring passed with success
30. 11. 2023
Mire restoration in Šumava documented by ARTE TV
22. 12. 2023

On 28 November 2023, we hosted a transboundary, bilingual workshop focusing on the topic of “Restoration of wetlands, rivers and springs in protected areas and production forests”. In the past, many waterlogged forests and mires in Šumava and the Bavarian were drained to increase wood production. Restoring the disturbed water regime of the landscape, including forest wetlands and peatlands is currently one of priority tasks of the NP Šumava and Bavarian forest.

As cooperation between different specialist groups and experts on this topic is essential, we were able to invite experts from various organisations to present their work. Ernst Lohberger from “Fachstelle Waldnaturschutz” presented the concept of restoring floodplains in NATURA 2000 areas and discussed the need for action to restore disturbed peatlands in Lower Bavaria.  Anna-Katharina Zech from the Bavarian State Forests gave a detailed overview of the process of peatland restoration and the challenges involved. Finally, Tobias Windmaißer from BUND Naturschutz discussed the preservation of the local water cycle and the strongly draining effect of forestry and agricultural roads on it. In addition Ivana Bufkova presented the latest advances and technologies in the hydrological restoration of micro-catchment areas of drained forests within the Life for Mires project. The current state of knowledge on hydrological restoration and the involvement of the public in practice was then presented by Lukas Linhart.

The day-long workshop took place in the Arberlandhalle in Bayerisch Eisenstein and was aimed at foresters, forest owners and nature conservation workers from the entire Šumava region. A total of 36 participants from the various fields of expertise took part and showed great interest in the topics and the discussion. In order to further promote the exchange of experiences and the importance of the topic, we will be organising more workshops of this kind in the future.