A 900-meter-long grazing fence was erected in the Vorsfelde district of the City of Wolfsburg during the last days of February. In the future, cattle are to graze on the 3.5 hectare fenced area owned by the City of Wolfsburg next to the river Aller. Their most important job is to keep the existing water bodies open. A few years ago, three large ponds had been created here. On their banks, willow, alder and birch trees grew quickly, so that the ponds were completely in the shade. That made the ponds unsuitable for most types of amphibians. The local NABU Wolfsburg branch carried out several measures to cut back the vegetation. This allowed individual tree frogs and greater crested newts to settle at these ponds. However, the trees grow again after every cutting-back, so that ongoing maintenance is required. In the future, this work will be done by grazing cattle.
In the autumn, a specialist company had cut back all shrubs and trees and thereby prepared the land for grazing. Tree frogs, great crested newts and many other species will benefit from much sunnier ponds in the future.
Photo: NABU Lower Saxony, Joachim Neumann
