(ffm) Want to take a look behind the fence of Monte Scherbelino? Like last year, this opportunity will be offered to citizens on Sunday, August 11. As part of a public, barrier-free excursion, Rosemarie Heilig, Head of the Department of the Environment, together with the Environmental Agency, will provide information about the project "Cities dare Wilderness - Experience Diversity" and the redevelopment of the mountain in recent years.
"At the foot of the former garbage mountain in the city forest, Frankfurt has created a space for the free development of nature. We are here in an exciting laboratory of biodiversity. We want to see which plants grow on their own and which animals conquer this habitat," says Heilig. On Monte Scherbelino, for example, the red-backed shrike and sawhorn bees are on the move. Purple loosestrife, sweet clover and wild parsnips have also found an ecological niche there.
Staff from the landfill's aftercare department provide information about the landfill's history and cleanup. The 50-metre-high landfill consists of 18 million cubic metres of waste dumped between 1925 and 1968. Remediation work has been underway since 1992 and landfill aftercare will be necessary for several more decades to permanently secure the Monte Scherbelino contaminated site.
Access to the Monte Scherbelino site will only be possible in the coming years under expert and local guidance. Due to technical installations such as gas wells, sensitive measuring equipment and others, some areas will remain permanently closed for safety reasons.
Since it is fenced in, the area offers retreats for rare animals such as the green sand insect or the spotted sandpiper. Exclusive admission, however, is available for interested school classes: Now, after the summer holidays, exciting outdoor lessons can be booked on site again. The biological diversity and the special value of areas, in which humans do not intervene, are explored and experienced here.
In addition to the Environmental Office of the City of Frankfurt, the BioFrankfurt network and the Senckenberg Research Institute are also involved in the project. Outside Frankfurt, the cities of Hannover and Dessau-Roßlau are participating in the overall project with their respective scientific partners. The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation will continue to fund the Wilderness Project in the Federal Programme on Biological Diversity for the next two years with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
During the tour, Andreas Müller, Staff Office Landfill Aftercare and Frieder Leuthold, responsible for the Wilderness Project, both from the Environmental Agency, as well as Andreas Malten from the Senckenberg Research Institute, will provide information about the measures taken and the results of the efforts.
The tour at Monte Scherbelino starts on Sunday, August 11, at 3 p.m. at the Grastränke parking lot on Babenhäuser Landstraße and lasts about 2 hours. All interested citizens are cordially invited. Please bring sturdy shoes. A registration is not required.
Additional information can be found at http://www.städte-wagen-wildnis.de and http://biologischevielfalt.bfn.de/25331.html
