Project manager: Dr. Bernhard Krautzer

With the combination of correct soil layering, suitable restoration technique and nutritional supply, as well as site-specific seed mixtures (adapted to the site conditions, slow growing, lacking in biomass with slight need for nutrition), valuable field communities that require little cultivation and are valuable for nature conservation, can be achieved in road- and landscape construction.

As a part of the “Natural Grassland Seed” research project, the necessary basis for the use of such seed mixtures and the reproduction of suitable species of seed (natural grassland seed) is currently being drawn up. It is the aim of the project to put basic strategies into practice to achieve the following benefits.

• Sufficient, permanent erosion protection in road- and landscape construction through the combination of high-quality restoration methods with site-specific seed mixtures of ecological types.
• A high nature conservation value of embankment restoration (e.g. enduring, site-specific plant stands and higher numbers of species, clearly increased biodiversity, and also where practical the possibility to maintain rare and endangered species in situ).
• Improved economy in the medium term (no further application of topsoil on suitable embankments, slighter costs for subsequent improvements, reduced cultivation expenditure for fertilising and cutting).
• Seed production of site-specific species (support-free income alternative for regional farmers, inland added value in place of seed import).