Near the airport in Eelde, about fifteen hectares of land have been converted by residents into the De Oude Molensteen nature reserve. Residents help each other to increase biodiversity on their own sites. Combined, they cover approximately fifteen hectares.
A striking number of snakes live in the area. Arnold Pilon recently found snakes in his crawl space and on the internet router in his meter cupboard. There is an independent population of Russian Rat Snakes in the area. “One of our neighbor boys had a passion for snakes. After a while he became more interested in girls. Then he asked his father ‘shall I release them in the garden?’ That father approved of that. That’s how the ball started rolling and before you know it, Eelde was called ‘snake city’.”
“We see them walking,” confirms neighbor Willem Wortel. “I had one inside once. And that is not easy because everything in my house is newly built. We see them outside more often.” The neighborhood WhatsApp group also regularly shows videos of snakes crossing the road. The residents emphasize that they want to help the entire biodiversity and not just the snakes.
The extent to which residents go in helping nature varies per household. But the rule of thumb is: no fertilizer and no pesticides. “We also support it financially,” says Wortel. “We also already had hawthorn hedges and trees have been planted so that CO2 is absorbed. That is exactly what happened to us.”
Arnold Pilon goes a little further. He leaves fallen trees behind and nature proliferates over his land. “I let nature take its course.” He hopes that the nature reserve will eventually be connected to surrounding nature reserves.
“This is what we have to do as a planet. Not just as Eelde, or as Drenthe.” thinks Pilon. “What climatologists already know is that sea levels could rise sixty meters in 150 years. If we do nothing.”