The day before yesterday a technician from the rural development group got to the O Catorce amphibian reserve. His mission was to verify that we had carried out all the actions included in our application for aid funded by EAFRD, as a preliminary step before payment.
The funding is aimed at the implementation of actions which required the intervention of professionals and they could not be performed by volunteers. Thus, an authorized manager collected all the asbestos roofing materials, those installed on the buildings and those piled up and left there. Specialists in pruning at heights eliminated the eucalyptus trees that grew on rock walls. The changing room of the quarry was rehabilitated, so that volunteers and organized visits have a place under shelter from the weather. The old electric transformer building was turned into a shelter for bats and nocturnal birds of prey. Finally, we put up a fence to prevent falls from heights, we installed several information boards and an entry barrier to avoid access to unauthorized vehicles.
Not only did we successfully pass the exam, but we even received congratulations. However, something important was still left over to be checked, although it had not been included in the originally-funded project; so we went back to visit the reserve today.
After a long drought, this morning the soil got wet by the rain at last. This allowed us to check if the actions we had carried out this summer to improve the water retention were successful. Some pools appeared already and amphibians will soon come back to them.
Several volunteers were working hard during these last months, helping and complementing the professionals. Some tasks are still pending, such as painting the visitor’s shelter, clearing away excessive scrub or eliminating new shoots from eucalyptus trees. We will call new volunteering days soon so that everybody can participate in the reserve maintenance.
