News

The field works has started on the 20th of July at the project site and continued on full swing throughout August. More and more machines working on the various subjects at the differnet locations. The biggest emphasis were on the rehabilitation of the Magdolna-ér in August. The main goal is to create a natural watercourse where water can overflow while eliminating the old deep channel. If the weather conditions will be favorable in September the rehabilitation of this 3,5 kilometre long channel could be finished.  The creation of the rainwater drainage channel on the edge of Balmazújváros (Balmazújvárosi övcsatorna) has aslo started in August and also the first sluice was also finished on the beginning of the Magdolna-ér.

The machines convert the old channel like Magdolna-ér to an overflowing natural watercourse (Photo: János Oláh)

The machines convert the old channel like Magdolna-ér to an overflowing natural watercourse (Photo: János Oláh)

The machines convert the old channel like Magdolna-ér to an overflowing natural watercourse (Photo: János Oláh)

Our Life+ team has visited the Kiskunság National Park at the end of July for a soda pan consultation and networking. The Kiskunság National Park Directorate is planning to submitt a Life+ project about the rehabilitation and protection of the Böddi-szék soda pan. This huge soda pan used to be the second largest in the entire Carpathian Basin (the White Lake of Szeged was the biggest though converted into fishpond in the 1920's and hence not exisiting any more) but some parts of the Böddi-szék were converted into a fishpond in the early 1990's. The still exisitng part of the Böddi-szék is still amongst the top 10 soda pans of the Carpathian Basin according to the HEA ecological survey (due to be published in a book at the end of the Life+ project next year) hence it is extremely important goal for the Kiskunság National Park to protect the Böddi-szék! Hopefully the consultation will help in the preparation of the LIfe+ project and in the rehabilitation of this magical area.

Soda pan consultation on the field with colleges from the Kiskunság National Park (July 2012; photo: János Oláh).

The dried out soda pan lake bed of Böddi-szék in July 2012 (Photo: János Oláh).

The field works has started on the 20th of July at the project site! The most important part of the Life+ project the actual soda pan rehabilitation has started. The field works will be continuous until late autumn and hopefully the weather will be also generous to the LIFE+ project in the coming months. All the works will take place at the Nagy-szik in the beginning and when it is all finished the Magdolna-puszta rehabilitation starts. The breeding season of 2012 has finished by now and the field works are strictly supervised by our experts and also the national park is involved in the supervision.

Working machine at the Nagy-szik, the soda pan rehabilitation has started (Photo: János Oláh) 

Based on the manuscript of the book titled Protection of sodic pans in the Carpathian Basin (A Szikes tavak védelme a Kárpát-medencében) only two breeding bird species constitute the group of indicator  species confined to natural sodic pans, namely Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) and Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus). It was a distinctive feature of the Nagy-szik near Balmazújváros compared to the rest of the Hortobágy areas that these two species were recorded as permanent breeders in the 1980s and 1990s. The Avocet nested in 1996 for the last time, Kentish Plover was recorded as a breeder until 1994 in the bare patches near the borrow pits’ waterbodies.  It must also be noted, however, that there was an attempt to breed recorded in 2000 in the southern parts of the area, but after that, right until now Kentish Plovers have not been observed in the Nagy-szik, not even on migration.

Thanks to the grazing, rooting and trampling of the livestock enhanced from LIFE+ funds, sodic features became more dominant on the project site, and, parallel to it, vegetation cover decreased, in particular in the vicinity of borrow pit lakes. News on this has been published on several occasions.  

The characteristic bird species reacted on this positive change by returning. This year over thirty pairs of Avocet attempted breeding, and now families with chicks can still be seen. After sixteen years, they breed again thanks to the ecologically sustainable high level of grazing implemented here. Field works will be initiated in summer, and this will further promote the appearance of sodic lake features of Nagy-szik. Even better news is that a female Kentish Plover appeared on 9^th June to have a look at the site after twelve years, which is a very promising sign for the next spring. These results allow us now to propose for a wider range application our system of conservation grazing, in an order of management followed by pre-management activities.

                Kentish Plover female (Photo: János Oláh)

                Avocet (Photo: Tibor Juhász)

                Avocet (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

HEA has been celebrating the 20 years anniversary of the LIFE programme at two locations in Hungary in May 2012. A film was presented at Budapest event about the association's previous LIFE project and its results: Nagy-Vókonya wetland and grassland habitat restoration (LIFENAT02/H/8638).  The main event for HEA was held in Balmazújváros with the offical opening of the new visitor centre which was created in the frame of the currently running LIFE project: Sodic lake habitat restoration in the Hortobágy (LIFENAT07/H/000324). The event started with the reception of visitors, offering mint tea and traditional cakes. This was followed by the welcome speach of HEA president Dr. Csaba Aradi - former director of the Hortobágy National Park - inside the new visitor centre.

Dr. Csaba Aradi talking to the visitors of the event (Photo: János Oláh)

The next step was a presentation by Zoltán Ecsedi - project manager -about the LIFE project and also the opening of a picture exhibiton of the project actions, aims and results. This exhibition is open for public all year round. The talks were folowed by a 'gulyás' lunch. After the talks and presentations (and in between) visitors could admire the breeding birds from the balcony by telescopes. As a result of grazing there are 30 pairs of Avocets breeding in the lake in front of the visitor centre. Last Avocet breeding was about 20 years ago prior to this! The first hatching of Avocet nest coincide with the event just as it would have been planned and the freshly born chicks were seen by some. 

HEA volunteer at the beginning of the event (Photo: János Oláh)

Mint tea, traditional cakes and birdwatching (Photo: János Oláh)

The opening of the exhibition (Photo: János Oláh)

The future of nature conservation... (Photo: János Oláh)