PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The Wenger Moor, an approximately 300 ha mosaic of raised bogs and fens, silt flats, reedbeds, Molinia meadows and forest, is the largest stretch of unbroken peat bogland in the foothills of the Salzburg Alps. Situated on the shores of the Wallersee, the water regime is closely linked to that of the lake. From 1993 to 1998 the lake was raised to its original level under a project run by the Wallersee Water Authority, thus enabling the water balance of the Wenger Moor to be stabilised, and laying the foundations for the LIFE project. Much work remained to be done: old drainage ditches carried water away from the area where peat used to be cut, which is why the previously open raised bog was becoming increasingly wooded. The channelling of the Eisbach stream, which runs right through the bog, accelerated water runoff, intensifying the drainage effect of the ditches. Intensive farming, pine tree planting and unmanaged tourism were affecting the surrounding habitats for meadow-breeding species.
OBJECTIVES
The aim was to improve what is left of this mosaic of diverse habitat forms, in particular its raised bog areas fringed by forests and meadow-breeding bird habitat. This would require closure of the drainage ditches and raising the water level. Affected landowners, who were already aware of the project, would have to be compensated, or in some cases land would have to be purchased. In the raised bog areas, one-off bush clearance measures were planned, and the Eisbach stream was to be restructured to improve the bogland's water balance. The meadow-breeding bird habitats were to be expanded by removing non-indigenous pine tree plantations and developing environmentally compatible meadowland farming (financed by the ÖPUL (Österreichisches Programm zur Förderung einer umweltgerechten extensiven und den natürlichen Lebensraum schützenden Landwirtschaft - "Austrian Programme to Promote Environmentally Friendly Extensive Farming Protecting the Natural Environment" under Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92). A "straw exchange" was foreseen to ensure a long-term market for the straw produced. Measures to improve the bogland forests and restore the Wallerbach stream to a semi-natural state, together with visitor management measures (laying a nature trail), were also planned.
RESULTS
The following was done during the project lifetime: • Hydrological studies, installation of gauges, terrestrial relief mapping (preconditions for technical planning) • Technical planning in order to obtain permits for the stream revitalisation works. All (water, forest and nature) permits obtained. • Management plan (Landschaftspflegeplan) elaborated. It includes the implementation of LIFE actions and the long-term management after LIFE (site inventory incl. Annex-I habitats, action planning, GIS mapping). • Elaboration of land price estimations; purchase/compensation of 45.29 ha land (more than 60 land sections). • Subsites Wallerbach and Eisbach: 1,150 m of stream reactivated and 1,400 m optimised as a free-flowing brook section; road relocation to allow free erosion processes; reconnected meander; creation of 600 m buffer strip along the brook; extensification of wetland meadows on 1.99 ha; initiation of 2.3 ha ash-alder forest (*91E0); improvement of kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) and grey-headed woodpecker (Picus canus) habitats. • Subsites Zellermoor/Wengermoor: protection of 30 ha typical bog vegetation (7110), incl. stabilising the hydrological situation by closing 12 main and several small ditches with 42 dams, up to 6 m depth and 60 m length; active restoration of 30 ha degenerated bog (7120, 7140, 7150) by cutting 10 ha spruce forest and closing ditches (see above); protection and improvement of 5 ha bog forests (91D0). • Subsite Molinia hay meadows: enlargement of wet hay meadows with 25 ha (6410, 6430, 6510), incl. cutting of 3.25 ha spruce forests and reconversion into grassland; promotion of corncrake-friendly management; habitat improvement for corncrake (Crex crex), red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) and the annex-II butterflies Maculinea nausithous, M. teleius and Euphydryas aurinia. • Visitor guidance: reduction of disturbance; awareness-raising in the local population; LIFE nature trail with 8 stations; temporary panels on site explaining the construction works; project information panels installed; installation of visitor guidance steering group (semi-annual meetings). • Intensive media work was done yielding articles, press releases, excursions with journalists, and radio and TV reports. • LIFE project website: http://www.land-sbg.gv.at/naturschutz/wengermoor • Information meetings with landowners, excursions for the interested public within the project area, project presentation at university of Salzburg, school work, LIFE fest 2000, Austrian LIFE platform 2003, closing event 12/2003. • Information materials: project folder (30.000 copies), layman’s report (1.000 copies, of which 100 in English). • An itinerant exhibition used during all project events and circulated through local school and administration buildings. • Scientific monitoring: ex-post surveys done in 2003. Long-term monitoring will be financed and organised by regional authorities. Orthophoto documentation of project area before and after LIFE (1953, 1999, 2002, 2003). • Birds and butterflies monitoring (ex-ante mapping), vegetation mapping, fish monitoring (at Eisbach), insect mapping (at Wengermoor).