News

Our LIFE+ project was successfully closed on 31st March 2014.

Our soda pan restoration project initiated on 1st January 2009 was successfully closed. The Final Report was forwarded to the European Commission on 21st May 2014, which rounded off this long and complex project. Of course, the habitat conservation activities have not been terminated, since for the sake of long-term conservation, the ecologically sustainable high level of grazing is to be applied and works aiming at the retention and regulation of natural rainwater are to be carried on in future.

 

A short summary of the project activities:


Water regime

Eight sluices, several new bridges were built, four kilometres of new channel and ditches were dredged, a new dyke of five km was constructed and 17 kilometres of unused channels, ditches and dykes were eliminated between 2009 and 2013. The project implemented with the translocation of many tens of thousands cubic metre soil aims first of all at the protection of the settlement, and, in the second place it serves as natural water supply for the pastures and the protection of the natural assets.

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Bulldozers working on the transformation of Magdolna-ér (János Oláh)

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The bypass channel in Balmazújváros, which separates “waste” and “clean” water and protects the town from floods (János Oláh)

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Sluice on the transformed Magdolna-ér (János Oláh)

 

Grazing

With the help of local farmers, who are incentivised to keep livestock, we had the Nagy-szik, Kerek-fenék and Magdolna-puszta grazed to the extent as it was before the World Wars.

 

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Mixed breeds of grazing stock play an important role in sustaining the habitat. (János Oláh)

 

Demonstration

Observation sites built and equipped with information boards were set up at Szikitó, at Kerek-fenék as well as at 139 Debreceni Road, where a guest room offers tourists visiting Hortobágy comfortable accommodation. They also have the opportunity to enjoy professional guiding services here, provided by the employees of the Hortobágy Environmental Association.

 

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The visitors’ centre and observation site from a bird’s eye view. (János Oláh)

 

Improved landscape

We have restored the original, ancient landscape by eliminating dykes, dams and bridges that intersected the soda pan landscape, by removing concrete blocks and communal waste, cutting down invasive bushes and trees, restoring the original shoreline through grazing of reeds and rush. It has become as it used to be like: a grazed steppe with wild waters, a natural beauty of the Great Hungarian Plain.

 

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Salt efflorescence in the pan bed (Zoltán Ecsedi).

 

Who benefited from the project?

Birds

The number of typical nesting bird species favouring soda pans habitats (Black-winged Stilt and Avocet), as well as that of ground-nesting shorebirds that require short-grass habitat significantly increased as a result of the project actions.  

 

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Redshanks at the project site (Attila Szilágyi)

 

Plants

Areas covered with typical soda pan plants increased as a result of the project activities, flora that like and withstand sodic soil conditions and trampling of livestock.

 

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“Henye kunkor” - Heliotropium supinum, name giver of our visitors’ centre (János Oláh).

 

People

We commissioned with almost 300 million HUF the local and regional farmers and entrepreneurs to carry out services connected to the project, and we purchased products and domestic animals from them. Furthermore, we bought some real estate that was difficult to market locally, and on these plots of land we established farming and demonstration sites with nature conservational aims. We paid over 50 million HUF to the government in the form of VAT and duties.

 

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Setting back vegetation with machines in Nagy-szik (János Oláh)

 

The project results are being uploaded to our website under Results / Achieved results. And have been also published in the handbook titled Ecolody and Management of Soda Pans in the Carpathian Basin, available for purchase soon.

 

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Avocet at sunset (János Oláh)

The field works continue in 2013!

The field works has started again on the 1st of July 2013 at the project site and will continued untill all the remaining works are completed. Several machines working on the rainwater drainage channel on the edge of Balmazújváros city (Balmazújvárosi övcsatorna) and two machines started the elimination of drainage channels in the Magdolna-puszta.

 

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The rainwater drainage channel of Balmazújváros is being built in October 2012 (Photo: János Oláh).

 

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Channel elimination in the Magdolna-puszta (Photo: János Oláh).

Adult Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) was found dead on the project site

Sad news from the last days of the year! An adult Eastern Imperial Eagle was found dead on the Magdolna-puszta on the 21st of December 2012. This individual has been regularly seen at the project site since August. There were no sign of being poisoned or shot so it could be natural death, we soon called the national park ranger and after thorough examination of the area he took the bird for further investigation. The results will only be available in January 2013.

 

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Dead adult Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) at the project site (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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Dead adult Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) at the project site (Photo: János Oláh)

Recultivation of the old rubbish dump and the installation of new floodgates in the Magdolna-puszta

The recultivation of the old (unused) rubbish dump at the Magdolna-puszta has started! This is a great news as it was a very unwelcome sight within the World Heritage Hortobágy National Park (LIFE+ project site as well). Several of HEA's recommendations - which was elaborated in the frame of the LIFE+ project - were integrated into the recultivation project.  The rubbish is being sorted by machines and finally all will be transported so the grassland could be restored in a few years time.

 

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The recultivation of the landfill of Magdola-puszta has started (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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The rubbish is being sorted and finally it will be transported (Photo: János Oláh)

 

In November also four flood gates / sluices were built in the Magdolna-puszta by the LIFE+ project but the drainage channles will only be eliminated in 2013. These channels were built to dry the grassland and one of the main goal of the LIFE+ project is to restore the old wetland. The new flood gates / sluices will be operated by HEA and the main purpose will be the water retention (winter precipitation) and occasional flooding if circumstances are adequate.

 

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One of the flood gates on the Magdolna-puszta (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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One of the flood gates on the Magdolna-puszta (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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One of the flood gates on the Magdolna-puszta (Photo: János Oláh)

The weather is kind to the LIFE+ project - the field works are still on full capacity

The field works are contiuous on the Nagy-szik since 20th of July. The extremely dry conditions are perfectly adequate for the good progress in the rehabilitation works. In September the biggest emphasis were on the rehabilitation of the Magdolna-ér and it has been completed. The main goal was achived: Magdolna-ér was transferred into a natural watercourse where water can overflow and the old deep channel was eliminated. The main sluice at the end of the Magdonla-ér in the Nagy-szik was also completed by October. At the moment the main emphasis is on the creation of the rainwater drainage channel on the edge of Balmazújváros (Balmazújvárosi övcsatorna). If the field-works will continue in such rate (if weather permitting) in October the Nagy-szik part can be finished in 2012.

 

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The Magdolna-ér as an overflowing water-course after the rehabilitation works in October 2012 (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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Machines working on the artifical shoreline of the soda pan (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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The main sluice on the Magdolna-ér is being built in September 2012 (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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The main sluice on the Nagy-szik part of the Magdolna-ér has been completed by October 2012 (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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The rainwater drainage channel of Balmazújváros is being built in October 2012 (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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Bird-eye view of the Nagy-szik in October 2012. The rehablilitation of the Magdolna-ér has finsihed (Photo: Gábor Tihanyi)

Field works were on full capacity in August

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.

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

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

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

Networking with the Kiskunság National Park

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.

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

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

The field works has started on the project site!

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.

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

Almost as it used to look like: Avocet and Kentish Plover...

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 9th 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.

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                Kentish Plover female (Photo: János Oláh)

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                Avocet (Photo: Tibor Juhász)

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                Avocet (Photo: Attila Szilágyi)

20 years of LIFE event

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.

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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. 

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

 

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

 

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The opening of the exhibition (Photo: János Oláh)

 

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

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