Category: Conservation management

Everyone needs a suitable environment for their lives. Butterflies and many other arthropods thrive best in a divers landscape that is neither too overgrown with bushes and trees nor too bare. They need plenty of host plants that caterpillars consume and plenty of nectar-rich plants for adults. We try to create such a landscape for them by sowing herbs, pruning or felling trees, mowing, pulling turf and other activities. Sometimes it may seem that we are destroying nature, but our interventions really help to target species rather to harm them.

We have cleaned and watered Dívčí Hrady

On Saturday, March 25, we worked diligently on the hillside below Dívčí Hrady from the morning. Rakes, pitchforks and sacks were in permanence, as we raked the cut bushes together with the old wood chips and transferred them to large piles. A lot of volunteers from the public also arrived, so the work went pretty smoothly. Before noon, the youngest participants took a trip to the Jinofarm community farm, from where the goats will be moved here below Dívčí Hrady during the spring. The children were happy with them for now and then they just returned to the fire, by which we had lunch together. Even though some of the volunteers gradually left after lunch, we were still digging in a fairly large group until almost four in the afternoon, before the dark clouds began to descend. Just before the abundant spring break, we managed to clean up all the tools and go under the roof. Many thanks to all the helpers and we look forward to seeing you, for example, when observing butterflies!

Even in winter, we do everything for our forest-steppe ideal

We sometimes look into the field despite of snow and freeze! This period of sleeping nature is ideal for pruning. After careful consideration, we decided that the site above Asuan reservoir still looked too much like a forest instead of the colorful forest-steppe landscape we were trying to create to support insects. So we went to clear it with chainsaws. There was also a proper fire and the smell of burritos.

New helpers were born!

Emilka and Jarmilka were born on the Jinofarm community farm in Jinonice, whose horned and hornless residents help us to graze the forest-steppe sites. We look forward to seeing them join the insect conservation work soon too!

Winter may come – the last management at Dívčí Hrady

During November, we mowed and then raked and cleared stubbles and depicting the outcrops of expansive woody plants and blackberries at the hillside below Dívčí hrady. At the same time on the upper part of the slope goats were grazed until the first snow in the second half of November. The last strip cutting at Dívčí Hrady took place at the beginning of November, and at the end of the month it was cleared. The part of the nectar-bearing areas was mown according to current state of vegetation.

School children helped us with final autumn cleaning above Asuan

After the sheep and goat grazing, there were small stubbles and stunted shoots left on the hillside above Asuan reservoir. Therefore, it was necessary to pull out the brush cutter before winter. We mowed a larger area of the hillside, which then had to be raked and cleaned. Pupils from the nearby FZŠ prof. Otokara Chlupa helped us a lot. In several groups, they dug up cut branches and twigs. All the biomass was then carried or dragged into large piles. After work, they deservedly enjoyed a fire with sausages.

Visit and Consultation with Austrian Partners (Innsbruck)

During the first half of October, we payed a visit to our foreign partner RNDr. DI Karl Černý (Gerichtlich beeideter Sachverständiger für Ökologie und Insektenkunde) in Austria. The aim of the meeting was the joint implementation of active management at sites around Innsbruck, which host an endangered fauna of diurnal butterflies, with a number of unique species from other taxonomic groups as well. As part of the management measures, we hepled to eliminate expansive woody plants and bramble stands, which are also a significant problem on some of our areas in Prague. Through an active approach and especially the subsequent consultation, we gained very valuable knowledge about how to effectively solve these problems with overgrowing of xerothermic habitats in the long term. We look forward to further active cooperation!

Autumn harvest at Na Rovinách site

At our study sites Na Rovinách, the strip hay cutting of grasslands with the use of mechanization took place for the third time this year. In the uncut strips, there are still enough resources not only for butterflies, but also for other insects.

Autumn hay cutting at Dívčí Hrady

At the beginning of September, we carried out another mowing of meadows at Dívčí Hrady in cooperation with Mr. Zeman. The goal was to mow previously uncut strips of old vegetation. We also focused on those areas where perennial weeds thrive most, especially thistles. This year we succeeded well in creating a mosaic of vegetation so that some part of it always blooms. This is important for a continuous supply of nectar for butterflies and other pollinators.

Field trip for ECCB participants

An excursion to Dívčí Hrady was organized as part of the international conference ECCB held at the Czech university of Life Scieneces in Prague. Almost thirty scientists and conservationists from Europe and other countries had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with interesting biotopes and individual management measures that are taking place within our project.

Goats graze also under Dívčí Hrady

At the beginning of August, in cooperation with the Jinofarm association, we started grazing a herd of goats on the carved hillside below Dívčí Hrady. Here, the goats help us especially with the suppression of blackberry stands and saplings of expanzive woody plants. Grazing here will continue until the end of October, when the goat herd will be moved to a permanent enclosure in Jinonice for the winter.