May 30th 2013
These are some shots from the small river mouth of Pomos in northwestern Cyprus (between Pyrgos and Polis) in late January 2013. I'm posting them to recall the riparian and instream conditions for an ecological restoration proposal that we are building with Cypriot colleagues.
What is unusual here is the freshwater spring at the base to the new building - creating a huge flooded water meadow near the river-mouth. This was full of Bufo viridis (Green Toad) tadpoles in January. The building incidently is a municipal building which houses a "Natural History Museam". Sadly one of the ugliest I have seen on Cyprus (although it is a new exhibit, it is full of stuffed animals and with little imagination and poor signage - actually poor nature interpretation). But the NHM could be made to function better. The location next to the degraded stream and stream-mouth is really a strong-point for cosnervation education.
So what do the Cypriots what in terms of doing some restoration work on this small stream?
- A restoration project along the riparian and in-channel (plantings of native spp.).
- Restoration actions that are in line with WFD 2000/60 demands
- Upgrading the ecological potential of the Heavily Modified River site
- Doing something within budget (which in Cyprus now is necessarily low-budget).
- Demostrating a restorative action that could help increase awareness.
Interesting and challenging stuff.
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