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⬅️ Previous capture (2024-08-18)
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Despite the majority of my study areas being private properties, I got to chat with two of them throughout the years and noticed some stark contrasts between their motives and their practices. Even though both areas are inherently different and thus would not allow a direct comparison, this year I started to notice a pattern affecting the much-younger meadow.
This pond, as stated on the "Locations" page, was privatized in the 90's and owned by an old man most locals merely referred to as "Odrich". Out of spite, he planted dozens of trees around it and the tiny cabin next to it, letting said cabin actively fall apart to offer various species a new home. Our municipality forbade him to plant more trees but was allowed to keep what already was planted up until then. After his passing, his son, who now lives in a different state but checks the property a few times every year, took over and so far only has engaged in very little maintenance like releasing some additional water into the sedimenting pond during the drought of 2022 and applying very little amount of chemicals on the conifers to mitigate the spread of bark beetles.
Odrich Jr. didn't shy away from his disappointment with the local people after my mother and I told him that we reported a dead fox on his property to our local hunter. "At least SOMEONE who cares", he exclaimed. The fox never got picked up by any authority and he was forced to despose it himself – something which he likely already expected.
He quickly grew fascinated by all the lepidoptera and odonata I have recorded on his property and appeared surprised that such a young woman would do something like that and demonstrated a ~relatively~ huge amount of knowledge.
This area was established in 2023 by a middle-aged couple that I came to knew as "those with the two beagles". Despite the tiny area, it already began to attract a considerable amount of Thymelicus sp. and even some P. icarus individuals. This year, however, not a single butterfly appreciated this patch and even the already-low amount of butterflies feeding on the older butterfly bushes so far has been limited to a handful of red admirals and a single A. io.
A few weeks ago, I got to chat with her just next to Zone III. She voiced her happiness about the pond and its state, then continued to elaborate on how she manages her front yard, stating that she took some plants and seeds from the pile of rubble on the northwestern brink of Zone III. While she did manage to name each plant correctly, she became much less engaging and simply nodded along when I told her about my observations.
I can't tell whether it simply was too much information I shared that could have been overwhelming or a genuine lack of interest; the latter may even be closer to the truth as she began talking about one of her dogs and how it had to be euthanized. I statet that pure-breeds are prone to genetic disorders that make them more vulnerable to other diseases and she didn't really want to hear about it. She then began to talk about birds and expressed her frustrations with our local cats, citing our local newspaper and claiming that our disctrict implemented mandatory sterilizations for outdoor cats. I read about it as well and this law was implemented by a municipality in our neighbour district to the north – I corrected her but she subtly insisted that I must be wrong by nodding along and quickly switching the topic.
Unfortunately, that's the part where we ended up mentioning modern technology. Because information technology actually happens to be my main interest, she noticeably got overwehlmed and even tried to obfuscate her own smartphone/internet addiction, later even claiming that she "has got nothing to hide" and that she "doesn't do much online and largely only engages in shopping anyway".
Zone III has remained surprisingly stable and even in spite of of the drought two years ago. Even though the amount of dead trees has grown, so has the amount of individual species, with P. nymphula (previously only seen on Zone II) expanding its territority to the pond and I. elegans having made its very first appearance this season. Various ladybugs and spiders also inhabit this place, while ducks, the Great White Egret and various other birds such as the oriole and the Marsh Tit can be encountered, as well.
The Front Yard Meadow, on the other hand, is beginning to show signs of detoriation. While it is never being mowed entirely, the overall plant composition is biased towards typical garden flowers (doubtful knight's-spur, common hollyhock), chase-devil, field scabiosa and, to a lesser degree, sage. The wild mallow she took from the rubble never ended up establishing itself due to this plant clearly preferring very dry and rocky soils, which her yard doesn't offer. She exclusively chose "pretty plants" from different areas of which the majority are vastly unsuited for most insects.
Both Odrich Sr. and his son openly expressed their dissatisfaction with both local attitudes and nationwide environmental projects. It is highly possible that both know (or knew) far more about this region's environmental conditions before it underwent mass-drainage. That the latter did occur was confirmed by our former village mayor organizing an event to celebrate "100 Years of Melioration Cooperative [VILLAGE NAME]" not too long ago (which I didn't attend but the flyer in my inbox was enough to draw my own conclusions). They make it clear that this area would be better off if at least one wetland, which apparently used to be widespread 100 years ago, can (re-)establish itself with reduced human influence.
The middle-aged couple, however, is the exact opposite of the Odrich men. Both did not begin to demonstrate any care until climate change and the "Insektensterben" became a huge topic among mainstream media. And even though they express their gratitude about the existence of Odrich's pond, they never outright express this to Odrich Jr. and tend to consider it more like a nice background ambience when walking their dogs – like people who only turn their radios on during chores to have some noise in the background without ever actually listening to what the radio is playing.
She also only ever talks to Odrich Jr. when she wants to donate trees to him. This area already is similar to a "swampy forest" and cannot host more trees but perhaps she's hoping that he'll use them to replace the dead ones. I can't tell why she donates trees to him in the first place because the current ones already have begun to spread on their own.
I certainly am glad that Odrich takes great interest in my amateur studies. His pond is doing fairly well. While it naturally is slow to change, its stable conditions partially extend to the neighboring zones.
The Front Yard Meadow currently is in a terrible state. Even bees do not tend to be particularly fond of it.
Both property owners share vastly different attitudes in regards to nature and the habitats they manage, however even despite the vastly different habitats it has become clear to me that the wetland is managed by someone who cares much more about environmental matters than the owners of the meadow. While both share their own types of biases, Odrich's biases actually tends to have a consistent positive effect; the owners of the meadow may have registered immediate results but now don't even care that it became largely useless just as fast.