Restoration of species-rich grasslands on reconstructed river dikes

Up until 30 years ago an extensive, flower-rich grassland vegetation containing many species rare in the Netherlands used to be common on Dutch river dikes. However, the deterioration of the flora on dikes was already being reported at the end of the 1960s. At that time too, ecologists warned that the planned reinforcement of the dikes along the Rhine, Waal, Lek and IJssel would adversely affect the flora. Their gloomy forecasts have proved to be correct. Between 1968 and 1992 as much as 89% of the locations with a dry floodplain grassland vegetation in the Netherlands disappeared.In 1992 the... Mehr ...