As part of our regular sustainability training, we walked the Biodiversity Trail at the Ökowerk Emden. We want to raise our awareness of environmental and sustainability issues on a regular basis.
The Ökowerk is an environmental education centre providing information about environmental protection and ecological interrelationships.
On the Biodiversity Trail we saw biotopes, nesting boxes for birds, insect hotels and even bat hotels. We were able to take away many tips for our own gardens. We should leave nettles for peacock butterflies and plant early and late blooming plants for bumblebees. For anyone who is unsure 😉: spotted lungwort is an early bloomer and catmint is an example of a late bloomer.
The topic of salt marshes has also been explored at the Ökowerk. Studies and trials are carried out with plants that thrive on salt marshes. We were able to taste the pepperwort and agreed that it lives up to its name. Many different projects are being promoted in Emden.
Finally, we had the chance to visit the “Pomarium Frisiae”, which has about 660 apple varieties and is one of the largest and most diverse fruit collections in Germany. The aim of the Pomarium Frisiae is to safeguard the diversity of species and varieties of fruit, especially apples, and to save old varieties from extinction by cultivating them.
It was an interesting afternoon and we were able to raise our environmental awareness once again.
Every sustainable action helps nature, so we are going to build an insect hotel and plant an apple tree in front of our administration building.
