News – ToBeLawn

We are pleased to announce the results of the competition carried out as part of the ToBeLawn project.

The competition was addressed to children and teenagers in two age groups. It consisted of making an artwork titled: “From urban lawns to urban meadows – activities for biodiversity in the immediate area.”

We are very pleased to announce that after long deliberations, our jury has selected the winners:

in the first age group (grades 1–3), the awards were given to Blanka Szromnik and Emilia Włodarczyk from the second grade of the Tadeusz Kościuszko Primary School in Chechło;
in the second age group (grades 4–8), the award was given to Natalia Brodzińska from the eighth grade of the Primary School in Ryczówek.

On January 23, the award and diploma ceremony took place in the schools mentioned above. Joanna Bokalska-Rajba presented the diplomas on behalf of the ToBeLawn team.

We would like to thank all participants of the competition and congratulations to the authors of the awarded works!!! We would also like to thank the Municipal Greenery Board in Kraków for sponsoring the main prize – a trip to the SYMBIOZA Ecological Education Center.

ToBeLawn Team

Gallery:

Awarding diplomas to the competition winners (Primary School in Chechło) / photo by Paweł Feledyk

Not everyone had a break this summer. We had our hands full. Fieldwork, which we have been conducting since spring this year at several sites in Kraków and Katowice, has become particularly intense in recent months, at the height of the growing season. We mowed the study plots (some once, others several times), listed the plant species growing in them, and collected soil samples. These samples are currently being analyzed in our laboratory – the Laboratory of Ecochemistry and Environmental Engineering of the Institute of Botany PAS. We measure a number of soil physicochemical parameters, including pH, macroelement content, and accumulation of various pollutants, including heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and petroleum derivatives. We also study soil microbiological properties, e.g. the activity of enzymes involved in the decomposition of dead organic matter, or the biomass of fungi and bacteria. This year’s autumn field and laboratory work is still ahead of us. After it is completed, we will already have the first set of data for analysis.

Gallery:

The first collection of soil samples at the site in Katowice / photo: Małgorzata Stanek

In order to familiarize the residents of Kraków (and not only) with the idea of our project, we have prepared a popular science article entitled “Frequency of mowing and the ecosystem of urban lawns”, which has just appeared in the pages of Metropolitan Magazine (in Polish).

We invite you to read it!

We would like to thank the children and their teachers from the John Paul II Elementary School in Klucze (grades 8a and 8c), the Maria Curie-Skłodowska Elementary School No. 10 (grades 6 and 7), the Myślenice Elementary School No. 3 (grade 2c) and the Cardinal A.S. Sapieha Elementary School No. 156 (grades 7b and 7c) for taking part in the educational workshops held at the Ecochemistry and Environmental Engineering Laboratory IB PAS in Szarów. We hope that the knowledge gained during the lectures, the visit to the laboratory rooms, and the educational games in the garden will serve them well in their daily lives and better understanding of nature.

We must admit that the participants of the workshops made a great impression on us. It was amazing how easily and naturally the children absorbed knowledge and found contact with nature, how enthusiastically they discovered the secrets of the meadow and later told us about it. Sometimes even seemingly trivial things were able to make them curious and surprised. Interestingly, not only the students but also their teachers let themselves be swept up in a whirlwind of fun, especially when solving the “Quest”. There were plenty of surprises during the practical activities. When examining the soil, its inhabitants – earthworms – began to crawl out of trays and had to be caught. A lot of excitement for the youngest workshop participants came from grabbing insects and spiders into special containers with magnifying glasses and observing them. The lively interest of the children and their active participation in the activities gave us, the organizers, a lot of joy and satisfaction.

We are very pleased that doctoral student Miron Gieniec joined the ToBeLawn team for the duration of the workshops. We would like to thank him for his assistance in teaching!

Gallery:

The youngest workshop participants during the identification of plants / photo: Cecylia Barańska

Together with the INTERLACE project partners, we took part in a two-day (11-12 May 2023) conference entitled “Unlocking the potential of underutilized urban areas”.

At the conference, we had the opportunity to learn about the outcomes of the INTERLACE project achieved so far and listen to the lectures about good practices in urban greenery management, including those used in the post-industrial city of Chemnitz. A particularly inspiring lecture – about the Ruhr metropolis – was presented by Anne Budinger. Anne Budinger presented a particularly inspiring presentation about the Ruhr Metropolis. This industrial district, rich in coal, rock salt, zinc and lead ores, has the largest post-industrial park in the world. Interestingly, in the area of 33 municipalities of the Ruhr Metropolis, over 360 square kilometers of land are protected for their natural values. Other areas, including post-mining soil heaps, are subject to renaturation with the use of vegetation resistant to harsh habitat conditions. As a result, the region has gained significant space for recreational development and a hilly landscape unusual for this lowland area, which is especially attractive to downhill enthusiasts.

On the first day of the conference, we learned about the best blue-green infrastructure practices, and during the workshops, we considered the problems faced by city managers in Europe and Latin America. The challenges for the city of Kraków – presented by the ToBeLawn team – were also discussed. It has been concluded that each city will have to deal with the effects of climate change in its own way, and its fate will depend not only on its location, natural and landscape conditions but also on the actions taken by its residents.

The ToBeLawn team submitted a letter of support, under which the Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences joined the CITIES TALK NATURE community and committed to promoting nature-based solutions within its area.

On the second day of the conference, we explored Chemnitz using the Loquiz app. In the urban game, we had to fulfill different tasks to combat the effects of climate change by designing a range of solutions based on the best blue-green infrastructure practices. We spent our break and lunch on a green roof covered with trees and herbaceous vegetation. A visit to the Saatgutgarten community garden, which aims to protect urban biodiversity, was a truly unique experience.

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The Chemnitz center – checkerboard with treatments of different mowing intensities / photo by Małgorzata Stanek

Taking advantage of the mild weather in the last weeks of winter, we set off to establish research sites in locations previously selected (in autumn 2022) with employees of the Department of Urban Greenery in Katowice and Kraków Municipal Greenspace Authority. In total, 15 research sites were established, some in Katowice and some in Kraków. Within each one of them, plots of equal size will be delineated, where three different mowing frequencies will be applied – intensive, extensive, and biocenotic mowing.

Over the next two years, the plots will be monitored and examined for, among others, the condition of the soil system. We hope that the collected data will allow us to assess the impact of mowing frequency on the condition of the roadside lawn ecosystem and the quality of its services.

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Site visit with the employees of the Department of Urban Greenery in Katowice / photo by Małgorzata Stanek

ToBeLawn researchers during fieldwork — Site visit with the employees of the Department of Urban Greenery in Katowice / photo by Małgorzata Stanek

In September 2022, we took part in a conference co-organized by ToBeLawn’s partners – the Sendzimir Foundation and the Kraków Metropolis Association, as part of the INTERLACE project: international cooperation to restore and rehabilitate urban ecosystems. The aim of the conference was to expand the knowledge and exchange experiences on the implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS).

The conference largely took the form of intensive workshops, during which the problems that City Managers have been facing were presented, especially in the context of climate change, air pollution, as well as social conditions. During group work, Workshop 1 discussed the principles of applying universal standards for urban greenery maintenance in Polish and European cities, including mowing standards. Attention was paid to the necessity of cooperation between different groups of stakeholders, including scientists (e.g. botanists, ecologists, entomologists, soil microbiologists), practitioners, i.e. people who deal with greenery in cities on a daily basis, NGOs, and city residents. In the case of our project, such cooperation has already brought results – it has allowed us to properly design the zones in which different mowing regimes will be implemented, and to determine the optimal timing of treatments.

For more information on the conference, follow the links:

Gallery:

ToBeLawn on the first day of the Cities Talk Nature Europe Conference / photo by Małgorzata Stanek

A visit to the Polish Aviators Park in Kraków — ToBeLawn on the first day of the Cities Talk Nature Europe Conference / photo by Małgorzata Stanek