On 29-30 October, 2019, the fifth meeting with Ms Marta Kaczyńska – LIFE projects Monitor took place, during which the LIFEDrawaPL project team had the opportunity to present progress in the implementation of the project activities in 2019.
The first day of the meeting was attended by:
- Aleksandra Stodulna – acting Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Szczecin
- Marcin Siedlecki – acting Deputy Regional Director for Environmental Protection
- Beata Gąsiorowska – Project Coordinator
- Aneta Radecka – Expert for settlements and accounting
- Małgorzata Ćwiklińska -Expert for supervision and control of project activities
- Mariola Wróbel – Scientific expert botanist, hydrobiologist, consultant of the Project
- Artur Furdyna – Field Coordinator of the Project
- Wojciech Wójcik – Electronic devices operator
- Mariusz Raczyński – Scientific expert ichthyologist, hydrobiologist, consultant of the Project
The meeting at the RDEP office in Szczecin was devoted to the team’s discussion concerning the advance of certain activities, their effects, problems that arose in connection with the implementation of tasks and methods of solving them. Formal and financial issues as well as the envisaged action plan for the next year were also discussed.
On the second day of the visit, a field vision of the project implementation area was organized during which the actual results of the activities were presented. Mr Paweł Bilski – Director of the Drawieński National Park (partner of the project and representative of the Steering Group) and Mr Maciej Humiczewski – General Director at Komes Water Sp. Z o.o. – (contractor in the project) joined this part.
The first goal of the field day was the northern part of the project implementation area and exemplary positions – within C.1 action – of Groenlandia densa on the Radwia and Chociel rivers together with a stabilized gravel bottom.
Then the team went towards the main area of the project – the Drawa river basin. The starting point on the Drawa was the bottom ramp on the Drawa in Złocieniec made under C.4.1 action via the grouted rock technology (bridge at Staszica Street).
Then, we headed towards Głusko to the Drawieński National Park, where as a part of C.5.1 action an old fish pass on the Drawa at EW Kamienna, which didn’t work due to poor construction, was rebuilt, and within D.3 action a device for monitoring fish and lampreys was installed.
During the visit at Kamienna Mr Maciej Humiczewski, the representative of Komes Water Sp. z o.o. – the contractor of a design documentation for the construction and assembly of a barrier directing migrating river organisms outside the hazardous areas near EW Kamienna, presented to the participants the main conceptual design of the proposed solution.
The field visit to the facility also highlighted one of the significant problems that appeared during the exploitation of the fish pass in 2019, i.e. the problem of leaves flowing to the facility with high intensity and fragmented aquatic vegetation.
The problem at this time of the year turned out to be extremely serious, due to the clogged exit from the fish pass onto the upper water which causes:
- acceleration of water flow due to narrowing of the first gap of the fish pass,
- lowering the water level in the fish pass chambers,
- likely to cause fish to be trapped in the fish pass, particularly during periods of increased migration,
- braiding and twisting the power cable of the fish monitoring device, threatening its proper operation and which may cause damage to the device.
The team noted the problem at the very beginning of September and confirmed the need to find a durable technical solution, especially since its intensity concerns the autumn period, in which the species covered by the project show the highest mobility. The project monitor confirmed the possibility of proposing some corrective actions in this area to the European Commission.
The last point on the second day of the Monitor’s visit was the Sucha River flowing into the Drawa, where the following actions were carried out:
- as part of C.3 action: constructing of the anti-erosion dam for the protection of water-crowfoots, anti-erosion protection of the escarpment was made by draining the road and draining rainwater by a road culvert towards the meadows
- under C.4.3 action: a bottom ramp was made in Sucha and a raffle in the Drawa riverbed
The meeting at this place was an opportunity to present Kamienna camping site – an object to be modernized as additional tasks C.8.5, the implementation of which was agreed by the European Commission in connection with the extension of the project.
The team’s meeting with the Monitor of the project passed in a pleasant atmosphere and ended with mutual wishes of success in further effectiveness in the implementation of protective tasks.
