Selke

Since August 2020 and until September 2021, UfU has been carrying out the pilot project “Neophyte management – development of sustainable control measures against invasive neophytes on the Selke and its tributaries in Saxony-Anhalt” on behalf of the State Office for Flood Protection and Water Management, Halberstadt river district.

UfU is supported by the landscape conservation association “Grüne Umwelt ” and UMGEODAT. In addition to the State Agency for Flood Protection and Water Management, the Selke and Upper Bode River Maintenance Association, the Lower Nature Conservation Authority of the Harz district and the State Office for Environmental Protection are also involved in the project. The project is financed with funds from the Saxony-Anhalt State Biodiversity Promotion Program, which supports projects that preserve and promote biodiversity.
The spread of invasive neophytes, in particular giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), knotweed (Fallopia spec.) and balsam (lmpatiens glandulifera), in the Selke catchment area jeopardizes the conservation of protected habitat types in the FFH areas “Selke valley and mountain meadows near Stiege” and “Bode and Selke in the Harz foreland” and impairs the maintenance of watercourses.
By developing sustainable measures against these invasive neophytes, the aim is to limit their further spread and minimize their impact on biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services and, where appropriate, on human health or the economy. The first step in the project is to record the current population situation of the species mentioned and document the measures implemented to date. In the second step, a catalog of possible measures is drawn up and discussed. Specific areas, responsibilities and the procedure for implementing measures will then be defined. Where possible, the measures to be developed against invasive neophytes should be closely linked with measures to promote native biodiversity.