News:
Project of the Month
January 2025

Due to climate change, increasing storms and the old willow trees that are increasingly collapsing under the weight of their overgrown branches, the natural habitat of the Little Owl is visibly shrinking!

However much we may like the tiny diurnal Little Owl, and however much we may want to see it on rural farms, few landowners today still use and care for pollarded willows. Many historic avenues of pollarded trees and groups of willow trees obstruct large agricultural machinery and are often felled.

The willow trees that we have agreed to prune for the protection of the Little Owl are primarily on private property, where we are not allowed to do anything for the Little Owl's conservation without the owners' consent. We have our Little Owl project coordinator, Herbert, to thank for the fact that we have been able to carry out pollarded willow maintenance work to effectively protect the Little Owl for the fifth year in a row. To achieve this, he started knocking on doors at farms and property owners in spring and then travelled almost 9,700 km of village streets and narrow country lanes by car. Conservationists prepared to do this task are very thin on the ground!

The 4,000 or so willows we have pruned in East Westphalia since 2020 will save this small diurnal owl and hundreds of other bird, mammal and insect species that have lost their pollarded willow habitat elsewhere. To improve the range of species-appropriate living space for Little Owls, we will again install up to 30 specially designed nesting boxes on farm buildings and in pollarded willows.

We still need to raise around €13,200 to cover the costs of tree care for the 530 willow trees and the new Little Owl nest boxes over the winter months. Time is of the essence, as the Federal Nature Conservation Act only allows tree care work in the open countryside until the end of February each year.

Your donation of 15, 30 or 50 euros, or any other amount you can spare now at the start of the year, will help us successfully carry on with the Little Owl conservation project.