Among meadows of habitat type 6210(*) that we are restoring within LIFE FOR SEEDS project, are also three plots in Ormož Basins Nature Reserve (OBNR). In summer and autumn 2022, we already started the restoration on most of them using green hay and seed mixtures, whereas this year we plan to address the remaining ca. 0,5 ha, where barley was growing this time last year.
In order to do so, we organized two seed mixture gathering events on the southern embankments of lake Ptuj in June. These are home to some of the most preserved dry orchid meadows in the entire Natura 2000 Drava. Twenty-two people participated in the events, among them students of the universities in Ljubljana, Maribor and Primorska, volunters and DOPPS employes. Twenty-one kilograms of seed material were collected by hand, mostly seeds of erect brome Bromus erectus.
In the following weeks at least one more such event will be organized in order to collect seeds of other species which ripen later in the season. The mixture will be dried and sown onto recipient meadows in OBNR in autumn. Every pair of hands comes in handy in such work, so we are very gratefull to all gatherers! In addition, we would also like to thank the company Dravske elektrarne Maribor for allowing us to collect seeds from plots under their management.
