In the trousers, between Sleen and Dalen, a new piece of nature is being worked hard. Where grasslands are still located, a varied landscape will soon have to be created for farmland birds and water storage.
It is a typical case of two birds with one stone: biodiversity gets a boost so that a bird paradise is created and the area will soon be able to deal better with extreme drought or flooding.
Special about this project is the collaboration. Water boards, Natuurmonumenten, Landscape Management Drenthe and farmers are rolling up their sleeves together. “And that is desperately needed,” says management director Bert Dijkstra. “Birds are doing badly like the godwit, lapwing and redshank. They have less and less space to breed.”
The trousers will soon get flowery lawns for, for example, the skylark. But also clean ditches with seepage water where the ducks feel at home and wet banks where meadow birds and shore runners can easily poke their beaks for food. This creates a place where all kinds of species can get rid of their eggs.
“The more variation in the landscape, the more birds you attract,” explains Dijkstra. “It is especially important that the birds can easily find food. The moment there is a lot of diversity, for example, wet banks, the worms stay in the ground for meadow birds longer and the insects come to life faster by flower fields.” If we don’t do this, I fear that we will be rid of our godwits in 20 years “.
To test whether this project will succeed, there are measurement moments. When there are 60 breeding pairs of different bird species in a certain area, this is characterized as ‘high’.
“We also go for this in this area,” says Dijkstra. “The potential in this area is high and in my opinion it is only a successful project if we have given that number of breeding pairs, and preferably even more, and waders and end -runners have given a place here”.
The project is made possible in part with the rural development program of the province of Drenthe. The question is whether the investment in this place is enough to really turn the tide for meadow birds. Time will learn it. But there is no doubt that there is a serious attempt to bring nature and agriculture closer together in the trousers.