Flower strips, wild gardens, facade greening - species protection is all the rage.
The Bavarian Ministry of Transport is keeping up with the times: green strips along the streets should now flourish.
One problem, however, is the rubbish on the embankments.
Höhenkirchen
- On Tuesday afternoon everything that landscaping has to offer opened up on the bypass road in Höhenkirchen.
Unimog with modern mower, bar mower, round baler, cordless scythe.
The State Building Directorate demonstrated to politicians, including the responsible Minister of Transport, Kerstin Schreyer (CSU), how employees maintain road embankments in a manner that complies with species protection.
"Everyone can do something to protect species, including us as building authorities," said the minister.
She wants to convert embankments into bee highways.
Create more flowering areas and retreats for animals and insects
The accompanying green on the approximately 20,000 kilometers of federal and state roads in Bavaria offers great potential for species protection, explained Heinz Dirnhofer from the regional building department.
That is why the state building authorities in Bavaria divided meadows into normal and selection areas.
The building authorities want to mow normal areas only once a year in the future, larger meadows even only every two years.
Mowing in sections would create more flowering areas and retreats for animals and insects, says Dirnhofer.
The building authorities also catalog a total of 1300 hectares as so-called selection areas.
That is 0.1 hectare per kilometer of green along the road.
These are "particularly valuable areas," said Kerstin Schreyer.
There are endangered plants and animals as well as open gravel and sand areas.
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A bar mower from the landscape gardener Wurzer Umwelt mows the meadow near the road.
© Robert Brouczek
Individual care plans
Individual maintenance plans were drawn up for these areas.
The plans determine how often and with which equipment the meadows are mowed.
In this way, the meadows are to be networked into a "habitat in biotope quality", said Heinz Dirnhofer.
7,000 individual areas have already been identified.
He hopes the concept will provide more structural wealth on Bavaria's streets.
Isn't it better for animals and insects not to mow green spaces at all?
"In a very short time the meadows would overgrow and trees would spread," said Sabine Lallinger, who is responsible for landscape planning on Bavaria's roads.
No mowing would lead to less biodiversity.
That is why the meadows are mowed in a "careful process".
Building authorities receive tablets for their work, normal and selection areas are drawn in digital form.
The days of thick Leitz files are over, said Lallinger.
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Species protection at all political levels: Minister Kerstin Schreyer and Vice District Administrator Ernst Weidenbusch.
© Robert Brouczek
Help wanted from farmers and landscapers
The extended green maintenance is a major challenge for the 64 road maintenance depots in Bavaria.
They cannot do the job alone, said Dirnhofer.
That is why the state building management would tender the mowing work to farmers and landscape gardeners.
"But we have difficulties in finding companies," says Dirnhofer.
The authority has already written to professional associations.
A market for it still has to develop.
However, the clippings do not end up in the cattle's feeder later.
It is too dirty for that.
"The green areas next to the streets are full of McDonald's mugs and Aldi bags," said Dirnhofer.
Employees often have to collect rubbish before mowing.
The clippings even have to be burned in the incinerator.
Drivers need not be afraid that the streets will now be overgrown with plants: workers mow the shoulder three times a year.
