Field walk introduces the PARTRIDGE project to the Environment Committee of Göttingen
The Environment Committee of Göttingen is responsible for all affairs concerning nature conservation, recreation and the environment of the city. Just to the south of Göttingen, with the area of the PARTRIDGE demo site “Diemarden”, the committee is working on a management plan that aims to enhance the environment owing to its high importance for popular local recreational activities such as walking, jogging, cycling, etc. Over the past year, a significant number of visitors from the city and surrounding areas have reacted very enthusiastically to the habitat measures implemented by the PARTRIDGE project and photos taken of flower blocks bursting in the colours red and blue in the local newspaper induced further interest. As a result, the idea arose to make the current PARTRIDGE flower blocks permanent, beyond the end of the interreg project in 2020. The city of Göttingen owns several hectares of farmland at the demo site, which could simplify this idea. With this in mind the committee visited the demo site on 14 August. Lisa Dumpe, the local PARTRIDGE coordinator, led the committee through the project area, explaining the project and its aims, including the opportunity to combine nature conservation and recreation by asking farmers to plant attractive and flower-rich vegetation that boost farmland biodiversity, alongside crops. The local PARTRIGDE partners and the city administration will further discuss the financial needs of that idea over the coming months in more depth.
Written by Dr Eckhard Gottschalk, PARTRIDGE coordinator for Germany, University Göttingen; edited by Dr Francis Buner, GWCT
