Representatives of the Wisła Warszawska and KNP in the nature reserve Ławice Kiełpińskie

The LIFE project closest to us is the Wisła Warszawska (Warsaw’s Vistula). The official title of this project is “The protection of habitats of key bird species in the Central Valley of the Vistula River in conditions of high pressure from the Warsaw agglomeration” (LIFE09 NAT/PL/000264). This project is implemented by the City of Warsaw and the Capital Association for the Protection of Birds (STOP –Stołeczne Towarzystwo Ochrony Ptaków). Several of the project’s activities take place in the Park’s buffer zone, that is why this project is of special interest to us.

This year’s LIFE Information Day was organized by the National Fund for Nature Protection and Water Management (NFOSiGW). It took place on the 1^st of July and was held in the Conference-Training Center of the “Nowe Horyzonty” Foundation, located by Bobrowiecka street 9 in Warsaw. This event was an excellent occasion for an exchange of expertise between individual coordinating beneficiaries and also the presentation of practical knowledge to potential applicants.

During the spring of 2014 on 25 parcels of land purchased by Kampinos National Park within the “ActiveKPN” project forestation and reforestation activities were carried out. All together over 30 thousands  of seedlings were planted on an area of 7.3 ha. The work consisted of forestations of open areas, and reforestations of rare species of trees and shrubs on areas already covered by forest. The aim of reforestation is to increase the species diversity of the forest, to create feeding places for birds, and also to support natural succession.

When purchasing land and build up households for the LIFE+ „ActiveKPN” project we often bought old soil cellars. Some of them are suitable for the winter hibernation of bats. Such cellars are kept and clearly marked. They are also included into the system of old cellars – where the monitoring of the numbers and detailed scientific studies of hibernating bats are performed. Recently in whole park 120 such cellars were located, including 3 (Sowia Wola Folwarczna, Zamość, and Nowa Dąbrowa) which were purchased by the “ActiveKPN” project.

On May 12^th , 2014 the next report from the realization of the LIFE+ project “ActiveKPN” – Progress Report No 1 (PR1) was sent to the European Commission (EC)

This is, after the Inception Report and Mid-Term Report, the 3rd report submitted by us to the EC. It summarized the activities undertaken during the realization of the project between the 1^st of January 2013 till the 12^th of May 2014.

By the end of the year 2013 all planned built up households have been purchased – 18 households.

During the autumn of 2013 the two first built up households purchased within the “ActiveKPN” project were demolished. The next seven built up households were demolished in February 2014, and by the 10^th of March the area on which they stood was already cleaned. These buildings, usually old and damaged, could prove hazardous not only to the Park’s nature, but also for people.

Meadow mowed within the project

Kampinos National Park (KNP) implements active nature protection tasks in order to preserve non-forest plant communities.

In the autumn of 2013 mowing (project action No. C3) on a total area of 27.65 hectares was performed. This included 11.89 ha of land purchased under the project “ActiveKPN” (0.20 ha was mown manually). The remaining area which was mown covered land already under the management of KNP. The mowing of these plots together with the ones purchased thanks to “ActiveKPN” allowed us to keep the complexity of the activities in the area. At the same time the removing of shrubs was conducted (project action No. C2) on the area of 0.88 ha.

The year 2013 was still another year of above average groundwater levels in KNP. For this reason a large portion of land designated for mowing could not be subjected to this treatment. The mentioned above concerned a total of 11.62 hectares of land purchased in the framework of the “ActiveKPN” project. Part of the land was so waterlogged that mowing with the use of heavy equipment could cause damage to the meadow, and sections of roads leading to the meadows proved impassable.

On the 6-7th of November 2013 Kampinos National Park (KNP) was visited by representatives of the European Commission – Maja Mikosińska (EC technical officer) and Anna McClintock (EC financial officer). They were accompanied by representatives of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The purpose of the visit was to assess the progress in the implementation of the LIFE + project No LIFE10 NAT/PL/655 entitled "Protection of natural resourses of Kampinos Forest – Natura 2000 Site, through the renaturalization of bought-up land”.

On the 20th of September 2013, the coordinators of the project “ActiveKPN” visited the Ujście Warty National Park (Warta River Mouth NP), where a collaboration focusing on the LIFE+ projects implemented by both Parks was initiated.

We spoke, among others with Łukasz Ulbrych and Szymon Śródecki who work on the project “Polskie Ostoje Ptaków” (“Polish bird sanctuaries”). The aim of this project is to reduce the pressure of invasive alien predatory mammals – the American mink (Mustela vison) and common raccoon (Procyon lotor) on water and marsh birds nesting in the park. We also had the opportunity to see the traps for the monitoring of the numbers of the American mink on the banks of the watercourses of the Ujście Warty National Park (on the photo Łukasz Ulbrych with such a trap).

On the 7^th of September 2013 Kampinos National Park’s (KNP) Open Day took place. On this occasion, in one of the park’s stands, a poster of the "ActiveKPN" project was presented, project leaflets were distributed and park employees explained the land buyout program in KPN and what the LIFE+ project is and how it is implemented in KNP. On this day the park was visited by a total of 1500 people, about half of which visited our exhibition stand.