Restoration of heathland - Brabantse Wal

The heathland is home to numerous insects and special animals such as the smooth snake, viviparous lizard and nightjar. Due to an excess of nitrogen from the air, the heath grows dense with trees at an accelerated rate. This gives other species less chance to grow. To prevent this, Natuurmonumenten is carrying out a nature restoration project in the Ossendrecht dunes.

You can't see it with the naked eye, but every day agriculture, industry and traffic release substances into the air, such as ammonia and nitrogen oxides. The substances also make the soil more acidic. Some plant species (such as birch and pine) start growing fast, crowding out other species. To protect the heathland, insects and animals that live here, young seedlings of tree saplings are removed.

Natuurmonumenten is removing 'storage', as emergent trees are called, on the heathland and drifting sand heath. We will be at work from the end of November 2020 until 15 March 2021 at the latest.

We previously removed storage on dry and wet heathland as part of the 'PAS Brabantse Wal' project. Natuurmonumenten receives subsidies from the province of Noord-Brabant to carry out PAS restoration measures. To prevent the quality of nature areas from deteriorating further and make them more resilient, the national Programme Approach to Nitrogen (PAS) was set up.