Gemeente Cuijk

Objective

Every few years the province of Brabant makes a survey of the environmental effects on the flora and fauna in and near “the Kraaijenbergse Plassen” project.

Context

The sand and gravel “the Kraaijenbergse Plassen” project is situated near the river Maas in the South-East of the Netherlands near highway A73 in the neighborhood of Cuijk. In the past decades -and until today there are still dredging activities- the project Kraaijenbergse Plassen was one of the biggest locations in the Netherlands for dredging mainly sand for concrete. Gravel was also there, but in small percentages. Because the project was situated very close to the river Maas, all the products are transported by ship to customers.

Result

The conclusions in the latest survey are again very positive, especially for the bio-diversity of flora and fauna in the project and its surroundings. In this case we can mention that the population of the badgers increased spectacularly because of the planting of 18 kilometres of special hedges, the building of 6 special badger-tunnels and preparing special locations for “badger-castles” where the badgers can make their homes.

Another important conclusion is that also the population of some very rare amphibians like “the Alpenwatersalamander”, the “Kamsalamander” and the “Poelkikker” has increased enormously. In this particular case the building of special amphibian-tunnels under the highway helped to maintain the former separated local habitats of these animals.

Furthermore the number of special butterflies and bats has increased.

The evaluation also made clear that all kinds of new and rare vegetation grew near the banks of the lakes. Examples from these new kinds of vegetation are “Boerenwormkruid”, the “Waterviolier”, the “yellow Lis” and the “Kornoelje”.