Uitkerkse Polder
The reserve “Uitkerkse Polder” with its salty meadows is located
alongside the eastern Flemish coast and was founded in 1991.
Because of the typical Flemish phenomenon of sprawling, an intact
poldercomplex has become a rare and unique landscape.
While the open space of 1400 ha in the Uitkerkse
Polder has become a rare and vulnerable area within the European Union, it now
is the centre of attention in a Belgian Life project.
Because of the salt in the soil and the
water (outside the intertidal holdings!), quite some halophilous plants found an
ideal habitat here, such as Annual Sea-blite, Salicornia, Sea Aster, Sea
Hard-grass and Sea Arrow-grass.
Also a number of birds found their homes in the Uitkerkse Polder. It is
e.g. an important breeding area for meadow birds like Avocet, Bluethroat, Common
Tern and Marsh Harrier.
But the area is perhaps most known as an outstanding wintering area for
thousands of waders, ducks and geese (Pink-footed Goose, White-fronted Goose…).
Up to 90% of the entire Svalbard population of Anser brachyrhynchus winters in the Oostkustpolder, i.e. the area
between Ostend
and Knokke-Heist in which the Uitkerkse Polder plays an important role.
The extraordinary salty concentrations in this poldercomplex are due to
centuries of seepage of the seawater, which enriched the soil.
Unfortunately, those characteristic salty meadows and thus the plants
and animals are threatened by the development and intensification of modern
agriculture. Farmers drain and excessively manure the wet grasslands in order
to create arable fields.
While the Uitkerkse Polder has been designated a Natura 2000 site, we
can guarantee the conservation of this precious and vulnerable biodiversity of
plants and animals. Moreover, thanks to the LIFE-instrument we can, more than ever, intensively
restore the different habitats.
Visitor Centre Uitkerkse
Polder
Kuiperscheeweg 6b
B-8370 Uitkerke-Blankenberge
(+ 32 0) 50-42 90 40
bc.uitkerksepolder@natuurpunt.be
Contact: Bob Vandendriessche
Opening hours
Whole year round on Wednesdays, Thursdays,
Saturdays and Sundays from 1.30
a.m. till 5.30 p.m.
From November 15th until February 15th open on Sundays
from 10 a.m.
till 5 p.m.
Also open on request.
The visitor centre
The visitor centre is an ideal starting point for
walks and bicycle rides throughout the Uitkerkse
Polder. Without having to walk for miles, you will find three bird hides in the
neighbourhood of the visitor centre. Furthermore, you and your children will have
the chance to take part in a short educational walk of 1 km around the visitor
centre. After the walk, you can visit a multimedia exhibition or have a drink.
Do you feel like it? Then hurry and click this
link: Activities in and around the visitor centres.
Information and requests for walks for schools and
groups can be obtained by e-mail
bc.uitkerksepolder@natuurpunt.be
or call (+32 0) 50-42
90 40 (during opening hours).
The neighbourhood
In the Uitkerkse Polder
you can enjoy the typical flat Flemish landscape. It is an open landscape
without any trees or hedges, with only a few farms here and there. This gives
you a feeling of freedom. Because the sea flooded this area several times
throughout the centuries, the plants that grow here are adjusted to these salty
circumstances. These internationally protected salty meadows attract a lot of
geese that spend winter here. You can observe them from November 15th
until February 15th.
How to get there?
The visitor centre is situated in the eastern pas
of the meadow bird area and can easily be reached. All you have to do is follow
the signposting starting at the church
of Uitkerke
(1 km).
You can also opt for public transport and use the so-called belbus.
You have to book this bus at least two hours in advance. Call (+30 0) 78-15 11
15.
LIFE projects
What are Natura
2000 and LIFE?
In order to preserve what’s left of Europe’s precious nature, the European Union created
“Natura 2000”.
Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas within the European Union. The aim
of this network is to guarantee the conservation of rare and vulnerable plants
and animals.
In order to finance all this, the
European Union also created LIFE. LIFE is a fund for all governments and nature
associations in the European Union. This way, major projects can be financially
supported and thus made possible.
LIFE and the Uitkerkse Polder
The Life project in the Uitkerkse Polder, entitled “Uitkerkse Polder: a surplus
value for nature and people”, aims to:
·
restore the unique salt meadows
(Salicornia-vegetations
and Glauco-Puccinellietalia) on a large scale and the breeding species associated
with them
(Recuvirostra avocetta, Sterna hirundo, Circus pygargus, Circus aeruginosus,
Platalea leucorodia and Luscinia svecica)
·
recover the disappeared inshore variety of Kreken
(large shallow inlets and bays)
·
create outstanding migrating, foraging and wintering
conditions for birds
(Anser brachyrhynchus, Anser albifrons, Platalea
leucorodia, Asio flammeus, Pluvialis apricarius, Philomachus pugnax and Limosa
lapponica)
·
promote and develop nature oriented tourism in order
to ensure social and economical embedment of Nature 2000
In order to realise all this, we’ve already taken several actions. This
resulted in two Life projects:
During the first Life project
we already established, among other things, the following: we bought 95 ha of extra domain, we
recovered 114 ha
of grassland and 10 km
of trenches and we also built a new bird hide.
The aims of the second Life project,
which started at the beginning of 2003, are increasing the area’s natural value
even more and organising more activities for the broad public.
A surplus value for nature…
In order to realise this, we need to create the necessary management schemes
and a monitoring survey of the first results.
We’re planning on buying 120
ha of grassland, of which 30 ha of arable land, in
order to restore the halophilous grasslands. We will recover another 90 ha of halophilous
grasslands by restoring salty meadows, extending the existing “core areas” and
creating new ones.
In order to obtain optimal development and management of salt and hay
meadows (and their associated species) recurring management (grazing
management, hayfields) will be started.
By 2008, we want the Uitkerkse Polder to be one of the finest bird areas of Flanders and one of the most important junctions on
European bird migration routes!
…and people
Of course, we are also putting people at the heart of the process. We
co-operate with a lot of volunteers and farmers and thus increase the
involvement of the local people.
The aim is to develop the socio-economic potentials of the area and
therefore we are going to expand the visitor centre in order to be able to
greet our guests more adequately. We will also elaborate a new exhibition and
place new signposting and information panels. We will build another new bird
hide
and a
watchtower too.
Moreover, we even want to start a mobility plan to limit the nuisance
for the neighbours and the natural values! Therefore we will use a wide scale
of push and pull measures to introduce a modal split: we will create different
Park & Walk-areas to limit the increasing use of motorised traffic and we
will publish a brand new guide for hikers and bikers. Because car free is care
free!
All of these efforts will result in large-scale restoration and
long-lasting conservation of the salt meadows, the development and conservation
of Kreken, Magnopotamion and Calthion/Arrhentherion meadows and of
course new and outstanding breeding, foraging and wintering conditions for the
birds. Respecting the natural values and socio-economical embedment of the
Natura 2000 area, new and increasing visitor facilities will be installed. This
way people will be aware of our precious nature and everyone will be able to
enjoy it!
See also
http://www.eurosite-nature.org/article.php3?id_article=227
.jpg)
