NATUR-SMART.- Working session in Villamartín de Don Sancho (León)
The Galicia Forestry Association participated on October 22 and 23 in the meeting and visit of the NATUR-SMART project that took place in the León municipality of Villamartín de Don Sancho.
In addition to participating in a proximity management meeting, the representatives of the entities participating in NATUR-SMART visited the 1,300 ha of municipally owned woodland within the Natura 2000 network where the actions planned in the project are to be carried out.
Among others, it is intended to open several hiking trails, one of them to visit the eight natural springs on the forest, which will be improved so that they emanate more water and reduce stagnation, one of them will also be connected to a pond equipped for amphibian refuge and with others from watering holes for wildlife and cattle. These paths will be paved and signposted with informational posters to make it easier for people who visit them.
In addition, it is planned to improve the forest mass through thinnings and enrichment plantations with Sorbus aucuparia in Quercus pyrenaica groves. On this autumn tour there was an opportunity to observe the extraordinary production of mushrooms in these oak groves and in the interspersed meadows. In addition, there was an opportunity to see an old nesting colony of European bee-eaters, holes in the trunks of the middle beak and a group of vultures in flight.
The NATUR-SMART project aims to conserve and mobilize agroforestry ecosystem services through the creation of a comprehensive and sustainable management model that increases biodiversity, resistance and resilience of the masses, among others.
In Galicia, the Forestry Association of Galicia is working in two pilot areas in the municipalities of Piñor (Ourense) and Folgoso do Courel (Lugo).
NATUR-SMART has the support of the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITECO) within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
