Program of the VIII Week of Land Stewardship

28 August 2019

 
By mid-September we will hold the eighth edition of the Week of Land Stewardship in As Mariñas of A Coruña and the River Mandeo area. As in previous occasions, we will combine a day of conferences with three volunteering days.

Photograph of the program of the VIII Week of Land Stewardship in As Mariñas of A Coruña and the River Mandeo areaThis formula responds to our commitment to nature conservation, because apart from getting informed, we have to act directly on our environment, if we really want to improve the state of our natural heritage.

This year the program focuses on the fauna with higher risk of extinction in our area, some even critically endangered throughout the planet. As in previous editions, during the volunteering days we will show our orientation to specific objectives, continuing with the local mitigation of two severe environmental problems: the invasive exotic species and the litter that ends in the rivers and the sea.

The Week is still being organized jointly by the Association for Rural Development Mariñas-Betanzos and Fragas do Mandeo. Funding is fully provided by the first, since we earmark 100% of the donations received for purchasing woodland plots of environmental interest, and therefore we do not have the economic means to fund this kind of events.

Please, download the program, the poster of the Week and the poster of the Eco-regatta to share them among your personal circle and social networks: in this way you will help everyone interested to have the opportunity to participate.

To register for the activities, please contact the organization by phone 981 105 903 or send an e-mail to correo@fragasdomandeo.org with your data (complete name, ID, date of birth, postal code, mobile number and activities in which you would like to participate). In this way you will be covered by an accident insurance policy, you will receive detailed information in advance and you will facilitate organization.

Conference on endangered fauna: The main event of the Week is a group of talks titled Appointments with the extinction of the fauna of the As Mariñas area. After the opening talk by the mayor of Betanzos, Ms. María Barral, and by the president of the Association for Rural Development Mariñas-Betanzos, Mr. José Antonio Santiso, we will present a short summary of the achievements made by Fragas do Mandeo over these nine years of existence. During this time we have been working hard on the restoration of our native woods and the conservation of rivers, marshland and beaches.

Image of the poster of the VIII Week on Land Stewardship in As Mariñas of A Coruña and the River MandeoThe first talk will be given by Dr. Pedro Galán, professor and researcher of the University of A Coruña, who will show the result of his recently completed research project on the populations of golden-striped salamander and the Iberian rock lizard in the River Mandeo. They are adversely affected by the climate crisis, since it breaks the population of these two endangered species and therefore the genetic exchange is reduced. Following that, Mr. César Ayres will take part, herpetologist from the Spanish Herpetological Association. He has been studying the European pond turtle since 1996 and he was part of the team that drafted a recovery plan for this species in Galicia. We doubt whether it is still living in the estuary, since it was in 2015 the last time an individual was located; therefore, it is necessary to find out the reasons of its declining and the recovery possibilities. Finally, Mr. Emilio Martínez Sabarís, expert bird ringer of the Anduriña Scientific Bird Ringing Group, is going to inform us on the situation of the common reed bunting, western Iberian subspecies. He studied the Galician and Portuguese populations between 2002 and 2009; for this reason his field work was taken into account for the official recovery plan in Galicia. Since this little bird is critically endangered all around the globe, and the estuary was considered a potential expansion area on the recovery plan, we must do everything possible to improve its breeding and feeding habitats.
Date: September 14th, from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: Blue Room at the Betanzos Liceo.

Volunteering at the River Mandeo: The first day of environmental volunteering will be devoted to the elimination of an invasive exotic plant which is displacing native species from the banks of the River Mandeo: the small-leaf spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis). We have been eradicating this South American species for several years along the 7,5 km stretch we safeguard at the lower course of the River Mandeo. The objective this day is to eliminate the last remaining spot in Chelo, since it threatens to propagate down the river to areas in which it has already been eradicated. Please, contact us in advance if you would like to participate. You can find additional information on the informative sheet.

Date: September 15th, from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: The meeting point will be at the Outpatient Clinic in Betanzos.

Eco-regatta on the Betanzos estuary: The litter we picked up from the estuary in the five previous editions filled nine industrial containers, exceeding a total volume of 70 m3. Image of the poster of the VI Eco-regatta on the Betanzos estuarySince the removal of garbage in the surroundings of the Pazo de Mariñán was completed last year, we will devote this day to exploring the last stretch of the right bank.

We encourage every citizen to participate in this fun race in which the rivalry will be for taking care of the estuary. The boats with the teams of volunteers on board will start from the port of Betanzos to the banks near Souto, where they will strive to collect the biggest quantity and the oddest piece of garbage. At the return there will be some food and drinks at the port.

The collaborating entities are Amigos de los Ríos de Betanzos, Ría del Pedrido Association, Lar de Unta, Roxín Roxal, Casa Castillo Betanzos, Porta da Vila Association and Olympic Rowing Club of the Mandeo. Also collaborating are the Betanzos Council, Civil Protection and Comercial Vicente de la Fuente. Please contact us if you feel like participating, even if you don’t have a boat. Additional information can be found on the informative sheet.
Date: September 21st, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Place: Port of Betanzos.

Simultaneous cleaning of rivers: This year is the twelfth edition of the simultaneous cleaning of Galician rivers coordinated by Proxecto Ríos. This will be our seventh collaboration (it is scheduled a week before the official date because of organizational reasons). Last year we were 861 participants belonging to 70 organizations, and we managed to remove over 10 tons of garbage in river stretches located in 53 different councils. This year we will get back to the River Lambre to go on removing all the litter we can find along the river’s middle stretch, upstream of the Anido creek, thus resuming the cleaning started in 2018. It will be a 2.5 km-long route through a diverse wood which deserves to be known and preserved. The path is not hard-going, but it is advisable to wear wellingtons, clothes suitable for walking in the woods and to take gloves too. Please contact us in advance in case you would like to participate. Additional information can be found on the informative sheet.
Date: September 22nd, from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: We will be leaving from the Outpatient Clinic of Betanzos.

The Land Stewardship Week is an established event, unique in the area, which provides the people worried about our region’s natural heritage the opportunity to act in a direct, effective and coordinated way for its preservation.

Giving your opinion or participating in social network is not enough to recover our natural heritage. Action must be taken!


Work camp finished

26 August 2019

 
Photograph of the volunteersThe volunteers of the fourth edition of the Monte da Espenuca work camp used the day to uproot the remaining small-leaf spiderwort and montbretia by the cascades formed by the As Bouzas stream. Tomorrow they will leave for their places of origin, taking a baggage of new experiences.

We met them to say goodbye and to thank them for their work, promising that we will keep checking that these exotic invasive species won’t recolonize the areas where they have eliminated them. And we also asked them to keep their commitment with nature conservation at their places of origin through direct action in the natural environment and collaboration with entities like this one.

The garden trailer was loaded with the bags filled with plant debris and litter. There were 500 kg of biomass and 52 kg of litter. The weight of the invasive plants has been less than that of previous years, but the work has been really positive, since they cleaned a long stretch of the stream along a really steep area, which made the work difficult.

Photograph of the As Bouzas streamThere are still several spots with invasive species and litter along the stretch of the As Bouzas stream up to the Porto do Vao Bridge, by the road to A Espenuca.

The tributaries to the River Mandeo, even the small streams like this one, which are out of the protected natural heritage site, have a great ecological importance. Young fish find shelter there while they do not reach the sufficient size to go down to the river. Moreover, we can find several threatened species in the surroundings: amphibians such as golden-striped salamander and the Iberian frog, mollusc such as Quimper snail or fern such as Trichomanes speciosum.

In response to the need of restoring the natural state of the As Bouzas stream, we hope that these activities can continue in future work camps. We expect to count on the good management of the director, Jesús Díaz, and the Ribeirán Proxectos Naturais, the essential collaboration of the Coirós Council and the Directorate General for Youth, Participation and Volunteering of the Xunta de Galicia.

Photograph of the volunteers


Welcome to the fourth work camp

17 August 2019

 
This morning we have been at the Ethnographic Centre of Teixeiro to welcome the volunteers of the fourth Monte da Espenuca work camp.

Photograph of the volunteersThirteen people coming from all over Spain ―including three Galician girls― accompanied by two instructors and the field camp director, will be working for our natural heritage until August 27th. During the welcome talk we have had the opportunity to explain the habitat restoration works that have been performed, our objectives and how we use land stewardship to preserve the biodiversity of our area.

After six days they will add 480 working hours to the work already done by volunteers during the last two days at the As Bouzas stream. This tributary flows into the River Mandeo just at the foot of the Chelo Visitors Centre (Coirós). There are several spots where the small-leaf spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis) grows.

Besides displacing the native vegetation on the banks of this stream, the presence of this invasive plant of South-American origin implies the risk of the winter river swellings sweeping along parts of the plant that could take root within the protected natural area, where its eradication is almost achieved along the stretch we safeguard along the River Mandeo. To support this objective, volunteers of Fragas do Mandeo have been checking during the winter and the spring the action areas of previous editions, to avoid the small-leaf spiderwort to recolonize them.

Fragas do Mandeo promotes, gives advice and collaborates with this work camp. It has been applied for by the Coirós Council and organized by the Directorate General for Youth, Participation and Volunteering of the Xunta de Galicia. The management is assumed by Ribeirán Proxectos Naturais, counting on Jesús Díaz as Director.

We thank them for their altruistic effort on behalf of nature.

Photograph of the volunteers


The University of A Coruña does a research at the Mandeo

23 October 2018

 
Today we had the first work meeting with Dr José Antonio Cortés Vázquez, from the Department of Sociology and Communication Sciences of the University of A Coruña, because of a study that is going to be carried out at the protected natural area SAC Betanzos-Mandeo.

Logo of the University of A CoruñaThe Investigation Group on Evolutionary Biology of this university has just started the research project titled Development of predictive models on functional connectivity of threatened populations in areas of special conservation of the Natura 2000 Network, having the economic support of the Biodiversity Foundation.

The aim of this study is to create a methodological tool for evaluating the landscape elements which determine the exchange of individuals from different populations of special interest species present in the protected heritage sites, and so to be able to predict the consequences of alterations which lead to greater isolation. It also includes the design of corrective measures and the analysis of social determinants for its implementation.

On this occasion the species object of this study are golden-striped salamander (Chioglossa lusitanica) and the Iberian rock lizard (Iberolacerta monticola), since they are confined to certain locations because they have a life cycle which requires habitats with strictly specific characteristics. Its future is clearly conditioned by the alterations of its habitat, being climate change a risk factor. But it is not enough having a tool, knowing how to use it and where to work: somebody to use it is also needed.

Fragas do Mandeo, as a land stewardship entity working at the SAC Betanzos-Mandeo, was chosen as the object of this study for the sociological research part. We hope that the study results allow the various actors operating on the territory to reflect and thus they help us to reduce the obstacles that we find at our work of nature conservation through land stewardship.


Volunteering at O Catorce on the 21st

14 October 2018

 
During the last months, a couple of volunteers have been eliminating eucalyptus on the two-hectare wood of the O Catorce amphibian reserve. At last they finished cutting them yesterday.

But this does not complete the work. Now it is time to pile up the foliage on one side, and the useful wood on the other, and to dry the stumps which are re-sprouting. In one word, a task that can be done at a pace suitable for each physical condition. Fine weather is forecast.

As usual, the meeting point will be the Outpatient Clinic of Betanzos, where we can share cars. No need to worry about tools, but it is advisable to wear leather gloves and clothes suitable to walk in the woods. Don’t forget something to eat and drink for the mid-morning break.

If you would like to participate in the deeucalyptization of the O Catorce amphibian reserve, please register for this environmental volunteering day by sending your data in advance (complete name, ID, date of birth and mobile number). This way, you will be informed on last minute changes, you will be covered by an accident insurance policy and you will facilitate organization. In section Contact you will find the necessary information.

Meeting point: Outpatient Clinic of Betanzos.
Date: October 21st, 2018.
Time: We will be leaving at 9.30 a.m., coming back at 2 p.m.

Post data: The thirteen participants of this volunteering day finished the work of piling up all the foliage and they eliminated most of the small shoots that sprouted the last two months. Now we only have to keep checking the reappearance of new shoots till we can be sure that all the stumps are completely dry and so confirm that there is none left throughout the O Catorce reserve. Photograph of the volunteers


Exam day at the O Catorce reserve

11 October 2018

 
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.

Photograph of the entry barrierThe 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.

Photograph of a poolAfter 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.


Program of the VII Week of Land Stewardship

5 September 2018

 
The seventh edition of the Week of Land Stewardship in As Mariñas of A Coruña and the River Mandeo area will start within ten days. Again, we will repeat the formula «knowledge + commitment», including a conference day and three volunteering days.

Image of the program of the VII Week of Land Stewardship in As Mariñas of A Coruña and the River Mandeo area This year edition focuses on biodiversity, dealing with issues that are little known, although they are really relevant for its preservation. During the volunteering days we will address two severe environmental problems: the invasive exotic species and the litter that ends in the rivers and the sea.

Once again, the Week is being organized jointly by Association for Rural Development Mariñas-Betanzos and Fragas do Mandeo. Funding is fully provided by the first, since we earmark 100% of the donations received for purchasing woodland plots of environmental interest, and therefore we do not have the economic means to fund this kind of events.

Please, download the program, the poster of the Week and the poster of the eco-regatta to share them among your personal circle and social networks, so that you help everyone interested to have the opportunity to participate.

To register for the activities, please contact the organization by phone 981 105 903 or send an e-mail to correo@fragasdomandeo.org with your data (complete name, ID, date of birth, mobile number and activities in which you would like to participate). Thus, you will be covered by an accident insurance policy, you will receive detailed information in advance and you will facilitate organization.

Eco-regatta on the Betanzos estuary: The litter we picked up from the estuary in the four previous editions filled seven industrial containers, exceeding a total volume of 50 m3. Image of the poster of the V Eco-regatta on the Betanzos estuaryWe will resume the cleaning where it was left last year, near the Pazo de Mariñán, where we will remove some lorry wheels that are still there, and afterwards we will continue removing litter on the nearest reed bed. We encourage every citizen to participate in this fun race in which the rivalry will be for taking care of the estuary. The boats with the teams of volunteers on board will start from the port of Betanzos to Mariñán, where they will strive to collect the biggest quantity and the oddest piece of garbage. At the return there will be some food and drinks at the port. The collaborating entities are Amigos dos Ríos de Betanzos, Ría del Pedrido Association, Lar de Unta, Roxín Roxal and Casa Castillo Betanzos. Also collaborating are the Bergondo and Betanzos Councils, Civil Protection and Comercial Vicente de la Fuente. Please contact us if you feel like participating, even if you don’t have a boat. Additional information can be found on the informative sheet.
Date: September 15th, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Place: Port of Betanzos.

Volunteering by the River Mandeo: The second day of environmental volunteering will be dedicated to eliminate an invasive exotic plant that is crowding out native species on the River Mandeo banks: the small-leaf spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis). For some years we have been eradicating this South American species on the 6 km stretch that we are safeguarding along the lower course of the River Mandeo. The aim this day will be to eliminate one of the two remaining spots, just by the Zarzo mini hydroelectric power plant, which threatens to spread down the river to areas in which it has already been eradicated. Please, contact us in advance if you would like to participate. You can find additional information on the informative sheet.

Date: September 16th, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: We will be leaving from the Outpatient Clinic of Betanzos.

Conference on the area’s biodiversity: As the main event of the Week we have planned a group of talks titled Views on the local biodiversity that should be preserved. After the opening by the Mayor of Sada, Mr. Benito Portela, and by the president of the Association for Rural Development Mariñas-Betanzos, Mr. José Antonio Santiso, we will make a brief overview of the achievements of Fragas do Mandeo after these eight years of experience, throughout which we have been working intensely on the recovery of our native woods and the conservation of rivers, marshland and beaches.

Image of the poster of the 7th Week of Land Stewardship in the As Mariñas of A Coruña and the River Mandeo areaThe first talk will be given by Dr. María Inmaculada Romero, professor and researcher of the University of Santiago, who will introduce us in the specialized flora that takes shelter on our beaches, marshland and cliffs. These are endangered plants, or with limited distribution because they cannot survive in other habitats, which are suffering a great strain due to the high human density on the shorelines. Speaking next will be Mr. Pablo Torrella, director of the Museum of Natural History in Ferrol. This naturalist specialized in beetles will focus on the dead wood present in the woods, to show us its ecological importance, far from the mistaken thinking that it is just an aggravating risk of fire. In fact, the volume of dead wood in a native forest is a measure of its biodiversity, since the life-cycle of countless organisms depends on it. Finally, Ms. Sandra Goded, researcher and founder of the conservationist organization Quercus Sonora, is going to show us the results of her recently presented doctoral thesis, in which she demonstrates qualitatively and quantitatively the biodiversity reduction in eucalyptus plantations with respect to other kinds of land use.
Date: September 22nd, from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: Plenary room of the Sada’s town hall (Do Porto avenue 24, previously house of the Marine Assistantship).

Simultaneous cleaning of rivers: This year is the eleventh edition of the simultaneous cleaning of Galician rivers coordinated by Proxecto Ríos. This will be the sixth collaboration (it is scheduled a week before the official date because of organizational reasons). Last year we were 936 participants belonging to 70 organizations, and we managed to remove nearly 11 tons of garbage in river stretches located in 51 different councils. This year we will visit a new water stream, as we will get to the River Lambre with the aim of removing all the litter we can find along the stretch between the mouth of Anido stream and the railway bridge. It is a 3.5 km-long route through a diverse wood which deserves to be known and preserved. The path is not hard-going, but it is advisable to wear wellingtons, clothes suitable for walking in the woods and to take gloves too. Please contact us in advance in case you would like to participate. Additional information can be found on the informative sheet.
Date: September 23rd, from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: We will be leaving from the Outpatient Clinic of Betanzos.

The Land Stewardship Week is an established event, unique in the area, which provides the people worried about our region’s natural heritage the opportunity to act in a direct, effective and coordinated way.

Demonstrate through actions what you really think. Get moving for nature!


Eliminating eucalyptus at the O Catorce reserve

2 September 2018

 
Photograph of the volunteersThis morning nine volunteers took part in the environmental volunteering day we had announced to eliminate eucalyptus at the O Catorce amphibian reserve. Although they are in the woodland area and they do not directly affect the amphibian reproduction spots, we would like to complete their eradication before the rains come.

The volunteers piled up the foliage, cut down some eucalyptus and removed litter. The high temperatures forced us to stop work one hour before scheduled. The work is not yet finished, but less remains to be done.

Fragas do Mandeo is a target-driven organization. Therefore, we will call for new volunteering days until the work is completed. If you would like to be informed on the next volunteering days, please send us a message so that we can include you in our distribution list. In section Contact you will find the necessary information.


Volunteers who come and volunteers who leave

27 August 2018

 
The work camp finished today. The nine volunteers, accompanied by two instructors and the camp director, spent the last week eliminating small-leaf spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis) by the As Bouzas stream (Chelo, Coirós). They got to fill two garden trailers with remains, what means an approximate volume of 8 m3. They also removed litter and even an old lorry wheel. Now it is time for the volunteers of Fragas do Mandeo to check for reappearance of the species, since any remaining small piece of the plant could re-infest a whole area.

But, even as they leave to return to their communities of origin, other volunteers have just arrived. As a welcome, this afternoon we have been explaining them our objectives and the mode of operation of Fragas do Mandeo to a group of coastal environment volunteers of the Directorate General for Youth, Participation and Volunteering of the Xunta de Galicia. The eight volunteers, accompanied by an instructor of Ribeirán Proxectos Naturais, are going to give us a hand removing litter on the coast of our area throughout this week.

We are grateful both to those who leave and those who have just arrived, for their work in favor of our natural heritage.


The small-leaf spiderwort of O Bocelo

19 August 2018

 
This morning four volunteers were eliminating the small-leaf spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis) by the ruins of the O Bocelo spa.

Last year three volunteering days were set between July and September to eliminate this invasive exotic species. Twenty-one people participated and performed an amount of work equivalent to more than 16 full time days. During the winter and the spring the volunteers checked for their reappearance in many occasions. When summer came, we were able to verify the total eradication inside and around the ruins. But still missing was its elimination on the top of the building.

At some time, the small-leaf spiderwort managed to climb the wall, thanks to the abundance of moss, settling even at the upper top. Therefore, the four volunteers had to walk the trail along the river bank carrying on their shoulders a large ladder. As usual, the worst of all was coming back from there, as they had to carry an extra 5 big sacks of vegetal remains.

We will continue checking this place until we can be sure of the plant´s definitive eradication.


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