The project succeeded in achieving its main objective - the improvement of the hydrological balance and ecological status of the wider Stechlinsee area. Finally, the project planned to introduced a comprehensive visitor management scheme to promote the site's potential for sustainable tourism.Īfter a duration of 58 months, this complex project concluded successfully. Both management planning and many restoration measures would firstly require appropriate inventories to be developed (especially hydrological). These would be implemented wherever possible through purchase or management agreements. Management models would also be established for fish farming in the lakes, to reduce exotic fish stocks and allow the aquatic vegetation and water quality to recover. Together with the forestry service, a management plan for the Annex I woodlands would be drawn up to allow forestry to continue in a manner that enhances, rather than threatens, the Natura 2000 values. The water levels in several lakes would be raised by damming their outflows. Several streams would be re-opened to the migration of Annex II fish species by removing weirs. Fens, bogs and mires would be re-humidified by revitalising watercourses and blocking ditches, or removing invading trees. The LIFE project planned several restoration measures to correct the consequences of past interventions. These activities led to the LIFE project, which kicked off when the Stechlin became a nature park and Natura 2000 area. It sponsored basic scientific surveys and undertook efforts to have the site designated a protected area. An association to promote the Stechlin and the nearby Menzer Heide landscape, Naturlandschaft Stechlin und Menzer Heide e.V.', was set up by a number of interest groups in 1994. Its wide variety of wetland habitats, intact forests and pellucid lakes are used as a habitat by many species listed in the Habitats and Birds Directives, including the lesser spotted eagle (Aquila pomarina), the bittern (Botaurus stellaris) and the hermit beetle (Osmoderma eremita). Nevertheless, the Stechlin district is still one of the most important oligotrophic landscapes of Central Europe. Past forestry practices, weirs and other barriers across streams and the area's popularity for tourism and recreation also had their impact. to provide cooling water for a nuclear reactor) and fish farming activities sparked fears that the lakes were in danger of losing their unique oligotrophic character. Nutrient inflow, changes to the water regime (e.g. Since the 1950s, however, the dynamic and previously unaltered hydrology of the area has been exploited for short-term economic benefit, disturbing the complex relationships among the crystal-clear lakes, the bogs and woodlands. The Stechlin, widely known thanks to Theodor Fontane's novel of 1899, is a crown jewel of Brandenburg's natural heritage.
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