Rietli habitat mosaic

In spring 2015, basic school pupils of Scuola Vivante discover frog spawn on one of their walks in the Rietli. The Rietli, a small, 3.5 hectare piece of meadowland adjacent to a forest, south of Buchs SG (CH).

The area is often wet – the name Rietli refers to the boggy reed – to the chagrin of the farmer who uses the grass for fodder, to the delight of the crowd of schoolchildren who watch the colourful hustle and bustle of the tadpoles on the wet meadow.

The children are outraged by the constant attempts to drain this originally deep-peat reedbed through selective filling. Tadpoles are rescued in buckets and relocated

Out of this indignation, the „Rietli Buchs rehabilitation project“ was born, which restored the entire area to its original state in cooperation with experts, educators, pupils and parents. A habitat mosaic is created.


Key data

Project start

December 2018

Project completion

Planned completion winter 22/23

Project management

Jürg Mäder

Project planning

Renat GmbH, Rudolf Staub

Initiators

trailblazing GmbH / Scuola Vivante

Sponsorship

Swiss Foundation for Bird Sanctuaries

Special

Cooperation with schoolchildren initiated and implemented.

Total costs

CHF 650,000 Financed by the public sector, nature conservation foundations and Scuola Vivante’s own contribution.


Rietli Buchs on the blog