LIFE in action Defragmentation

In the last months of the LIFE Bear Defragmentation project, an environmental education program aimed at all students in the municipalities of the project has been developed, to raise awareness about the importance of conservation of the brown bear and to disseminate this message through their families. The campaign has been carried out in schools in the project’s municipalities and in centers of the most important villages in the surroundings, which are attended by many students from the area. A total of 23 environmental education activities were carried out, in which 836 students participated, consisting of seven lectures-debates held at the Secondary Education Centers (IES) of La Robla, Boñar and Pola de Gordón, five interpretative routes along the corridor for students of the Primary and Secondary Schools (CEIP) of La Pola de Gordón, Ciñera, Villamanín, Huergas de Babia, La Vecilla, La Robla, La Magdalena and Boñar, and eleven storytelling activities for children and primary students of this schools and those of Matallana and Riello. As work material for the field routes, a didactic workbook has been edited, based on the material used in other educational campaigns of the FOP.

December 2016

Interpretive route with school children in the cantabrian brown bear interpopulation corridor .

The implication and involvement of the inhabitants of the corridor in the habitat improvement actions have been a very important part of the project. Among other activities, several volunteer days have been held with a remarkable success, in which 226 volunteers have participated. In August 2015, 36 volunteers from the town of Cármenes participated in an interpretative route and seed collection for the production of seedling for the project. In October 2015, 20 volunteer workers from Gas Natural Fenosa planted the first 150 trees on the land acquired by the project in Gete. In the same area, three other volunteer activities were developed in April, October and December 2016, in which 58, 61 and 74 volunteers planted more than 750 trees together. In October 2016 and in the framework of the Participatory Meetings of the project, a visit was also carried out with the participation of 61 people. These activities have allowed many people in the area to know and participate in the project, contributing to disseminate and improve the awareness about the importance of the conservation of the brown bear and its presence in this area.

December 2016

The project coordinator explains how to organize the plantation to a group of volunteers.

In November, the permeabilization and improvement in the surroundings of some passages existing in the highway AP-66 have been completed. This action has consisted in the planting of cover native trees and bushes in suitable zones in the proximity of some selected passages. This highway crosses the interpopulation corridor between the two subpopulations of Cantabrian brown bear, contributing to the fragmentation. There are not specific fauna passages or other measures to reduce the barrier effect. However, there are some tunnels, small viaducts and underpasses that can allow the crossing of a bear. In order to facilitate the use of these passages by bears and other large mammals, increasing the vegetation cover in the proximity, we have planted in this project action 32 permeabilization forests constituted by 21,585 trees and shrubs, mainly birch (Betula alba) and 3,232 shrubs (Genista florida, Cytisus scoparius, Cytisus multiflorus) and with a total restored area of 17 ha.
 
The plantations have been carried out on public land (left over from the expropriations carried out for the construction of the highway) with an authorization from the Spanish Ministry of Fomento, as well as on land owned by municipalities with an Land Stewardship Agreement signed with the corresponding local councils. Willow stakes have been planted in the Public Hydraulic Land, with the specific permission of the Duero Hydrographic Confederation. Plantations works have been developed by forestry companies hiring unemployed people from the area and have been coordinated and supervised by the technical staff and field staff of the project, also responsible for the selection of areas, definition of actions, transportation and plant preparation, coordination with authorities and social actors of the territory and monitoring of plantations.

November 2016

Cover plantations in the surroundings of selected passages in the highway AP66.

Between 13 and 15 October, the coordinator of the LIFE Bear Defragmentation project participated in an international meeting on the conservation of large carnivores and threatened scavenger raptors in Europe, held in Teramo (Italy), at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Teramo. The meeting is part of the exchange and dissemination actions of the LIFE Pluto project, aimed at developing actions to combat illegal poisoning and its negative effects on bear, wolf and scavenger raptors in Italy. In this meeting we have been able to present the situation of the Cantabrian bears and the actions developed in the LIFE project to favor its conservation, as well as to participate in debates on the problem of scavenger species and poison, together with more than 20 experts from different countries.

October 2016

The LIFE Bear Defragmentation project coordinator intervening in the congress.

On 14, 15 and 16 October, the Participatory Meetings of the LIFE Bear Defragmentation project were held in La Pola de Gordón (León), with the collaboration of the host city council. These meetings had the purpose of showing the results of the actions developed, evaluating them and discussing with different stakeholders and the local public about the importance and the keys of the coexistence between bears and humans in the territory of the Cantabrian interpoblacional corridor. Thematic meetings have been held with local stakeholders, hunters, farmers and beekeepers, in which a total of 78 people participated, to share and resolve doubts and concerns about coexistence with bears. In addition to these meetings, about 150 schoolchildren from the municipalities involved in the project have participated in the various educational activities that have been carried out, as workshops, exhibitions, storytelling and games. These activities have helped children to learn more about the species and its habitat. To conclude the event, a field visit was carried out in Cármenes (León), to see the areas planted in the project, in which 61 neighbors participated. All the activities have been developed with the collaboration of different associations of the zone: Mountain Club Hiking Road, Club Deportivo Collalampa, Environmental Association Lacerta, Cultural Association La Mediana, Cultural Association Los Duendes de Tolibia.

October 2016

Children participating in one of the educational activities of the Participatory Meetings

The last newsletter of the project has been published, with the main actions developed since spring to the end of the project.

September 2016

La Fundación Oso Pardo (FOP) acoge habitualmente estudiantes de diversos estudios relacionados con la conservación de la naturaleza y la gestión forestal para el desarrollo de sus prácticas laborales, y previo acuerdos con los centros educativos correspondientes. Varios estudiantes han desarrollado sus prácticas laborales en el marco del proyecto LIFE Desfragmentación Oso, acompañando al equipo de campo y ayudando en el desempeño de diferentes labores como búsquedas de indicios de presencia de oso o seguimiento y control de las plantaciones realizadas en el proyecto. En 2014 realizó sus prácticas Lorena, estudiante de Ingeniería Forestal, y en 2015 Bárbara, estudiante de Biología, ambas procedentes de la Universidad de León. En 2016 nos acompañaron Enma y Miguel, estudiantes del Ciclo Formativo de Técnico en Trabajos Forestales y de Conservación del Medio Natural del Centro Gredos San Diego de Buitrago y María y Oscar, estudiantes del Grado en Ingeniería Forestal y del Medio Natural de la Universidad de Oviedo. Muchas gracias a todos por el esfuerzo y entusiasmo.

Agosto 2016

Intern students checking plantations of the LIFE project.

Over the summer of 2016 the field team has continued to verify the presence of various brown bear specimens in the interpopulation corridor. In July there was an attack on an apiary in Matallana de Torío and paw prints were sighted in the area in the following days. Soon after, there was another attack on beehives in Valverde (Valdelugueros). In Correcillas, in the Valdepiélago municipality, there has also been evidence of a bear in an apiary protected by electric fencing, although no damage has been done. In August the presence of bears eating cherries has been confirmed in the areas around Sena de Luna and Cármenes. In the latter, a bear has been eating cherries in the Gete valley in one of the few existing cherry orchards in the land acquired for the sowing of forests.

This area, which has been planted with whitebeam, apple, common hazel, alder buckthorn and mahaleb cherry will become an established visiting place for the bears in a few years. A little later in the month, bear excrements containing the remains of alpine buckthorn has been sighted in Sena de Luna and Vegacervera, around Valporquero caves, which reflects the importance of this shrub to feeding bears in the limestone territory of the interpopulation corridor.

August 2016

Volunteer students watching footprints in the municipality of Sena de Luna in August 2016.

On 23rd and 24th of May 2016 a follow-up visit has been organised for the European Commission to examine the Bear Defragmentation LIFE project, with the attendance of Dorte Pardo-López, head of the LIFE programme in Spain in the General Directorate of Environment in the European Commission. After a work meeting in the FOP offices in Santander with the technical team and LIFE administrative staff, the project coordinator and field team members accompanied her on a visit to some of the plantation areas in the connectivity forests, checking the good condition of the trees and their evolution. They have also visited the surroundings of the highway where the screening plantations are being finalised near some of the existing crossings. During the field visit a meeting was held to exchange ideas with municipality officials and some of the managers from the biosphere reserves in the area, who are collaborating in the development of the LIFE project.
During the visit, and among some of the technical aspects in the advancement of the project, it has been agreed to extend the project until December 2016 to adequately complete the monitoring of the plantations and the presence of bears in corridor.

May 2016

The technical and field team of the LIFE project during the visit to the plantations