Last week I spent my days in the Moor (wetland) volunteering with the Bergwaldprojekt to help rehydrate a Moor, which had been drained for agricultural reasons. We were a group of 25 diverse personailities, who worked together digging out and stomping down soil, making water bucket chains, soil chains, mud chains and "Binsen" gras chains in order to install dams that will stow back water. A great muddy experience. Everyday the Moor was different depending on the weather, yet one thing didn't change: our wakeup time of 6AM with the most pleasant and smooth "Guten Mooooorgen" from Lutz, our project guide.
Each night we had a different little entertainment event scheduled: we learned about the background of the Moor and our work, we watched the beautiful documentary "Magie der Moore", one evening the gentle head of the Jasmund National Park, Dr. Ingolf Stodian gave us a talk on the water and geology of the Island and at the end of the week he gave us a guided "VIP" excursion into the National Park. Such a gift with all these insights and Details, also concerning the hardship of the social communication aspect of nature conservancy and safety and the inhabitants… This whole week was a true gift. For the first time in a while I felt like my work had true direct impact, helping restore the Moor so it can grow 1mm per year again and can absorb 6x as much CO2 as a 100 year old forest of the same cubic space. Another big takeaway was the learning, that you can basically turn any leftover food into a yummy nurturing soup. :)
October 8–15 th, 2017
Almost four years after creating this infographic for the NABU e.V., which shows the effects of taking out peat from the Moor, it was great to connect this abstract info illustration work with the outdoor reality. :)
