News - World Environment Day 2024
June 5, 2024
A remarkable nature project: the renaturation of a former farmland area
Since December 2023, we have been supporting BUND in Freiberg am Neckar with a donation. The organisation independently selects environmental projects in the region and uses the money to protect our natural resources. One example is the renaturation project "From field to insect meadow", which we would like to present to you here.
In 2022, the Canz family started a special nature project. The long-standing tenant no longer needed their farmland, and the expiring lease offered the opportunity to realise a dream. The plan: to turn the field into a habitat for insects, birds, reptiles and other animals and provide space for a diverse, species-rich habitat.
There is a lot of work in the field at the beginning
After all, it must be prepared accordingly to sow a native seed mixture. The plants include grasses such as timothy and golden oats, herbs such as wild carrot and meadow sage, as well as leguminous plants such as clover. To ensure that wildflowers and herbs can establish themselves in the long term, the soil is depleted over the long term. To do this, the Canz family mows sustainably and gently with a hand scythe and removes the mowing to make the soil poorer in nutrients - a prerequisite for the development of a species-rich nutrient-poor meadow.
A large part of the border areas will remain free of woodland to provide habitat for field breeders such as the lark. A wide flowering strip with a growth height of around one metre is planned for these border areas. The difference was already huge in the summer of 2023: poppies, cornflowers, yarrow, wild carrot and horned clover bloomed on the former field, attracting numerous insects. In January 2024, the project entered the next phase: the planting of a woodland strip with native insect and bird food trees such as foxglove, dogwood, hazel, red honeysuckle, blackthorn and red elderberry.
Further measures are planned
The Canz family has set itself the goal of creating further habitats and ecological niches for animals and plants. A newly created clay puddle provides water and building material for insects and birds. A pile of large natural stones is crushed to create habitats for reptiles and insects. In this way, a species-rich biotope is gradually being created - much to the delight of those seeking recreation in the fields between Freiberg and Benningen.
The project is being supported financially and in word and deed by the NABU local group in Ludwigsburg and the BUND city association in Freiberg. We are pleased to support this project with our company donation and to make a regional contribution to biodiversity!
You can find pictures of the project at:
www.instagram.com/artenschutz_salzmann/
Read more about sustainability in our ESG report: