It is about 30 centimeters high and stopped almost 1,000 toads last year, possibly saving their lives: the toad fence along the street “Am long Zaun” in Kleinmünchen on the edge of the water forest. It is one of two fences that employees of the Natural History Station Linz put up together with the Nature Conservation Association last week. The fence prevents animals on their way to their spawning grounds from crossing the dangerous road.
Toads end up in buckets
When trying to avoid this obstacle, they fall into buckets that are sunk into the ground at regular intervals. The caught animals are then brought safely across the road by conservationists. A second fence installed by the city is on Mönchgrabenstraße in Ebelsberg.
By the way, the toad protection fence on Froschberg, which many Linzers will remember, no longer exists. The reason is simple: the toads have reoriented themselves. You no longer walk to the Botanical Garden via Kapuzinerstrasse, but rather come from the Bauernberg or the Chamber of Agriculture.
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But toads are only a small part of the natural history station’s tasks. A large project to map meadow areas in the Linz city area will start in spring. “We would like to look at the meadows in detail,” says Thomas Schiefecker, head of the natural history station, in an interview with OÖN. In the case of particularly valuable meadows, the individual plant species are also recorded.
Lean meadows are richer in species
These are the “lean” meadows, i.e. those whose soil has fewer nutrients than the “fat” meadows. In meadows rich in nitrogen, a few species with strong competition usually prevail; in meadows that are poor, the diversity of species is greater, including that of insects. Schiefecker cites the flood protection dams on the Traun-Danube floodplains as an example. To ensure that these meadows remain lean, the mown material is transported away, thus depriving the soil of nutrients.
A total of 350 hectares of meadows owned by the city of Linz are being examined. Schiefecker does not expect a result until next year. The mapping is being carried out by an external office and the tender is currently underway.
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