Over the last two weeks, we organized two field trips focusing on the 5th Platform of the Model Farm for sustainable agriculture: The Nahalal stream restoration project.
Fifty people attended both field trips. The first field trip included members of the project’s steering committee while the second field trip included the visit of people from the department of land conservation and drainage at MOAG, and professionals from the private sector: planners, engineers, and landscape architectures.
The tour started at the Newe Ya’ar campus at the observation point overlooking the farmland and the watershed boundaries. From there the groups walked down to the river to witness the restoration efforts of the channel, its corridor, and adjacent buffer strips at the margins of the cultivated areas.
Among the topics that were discussed: 1. dredged sediment: risks & potentials; 2. BMP to eliminate invasive vegetation (e.g. Parthenium hysterophorus, Ricinus communis); 3. Trees planting & riparian vegetation recovery and restoration; 4. Use of LWD or LWS to accelerate hydrogeomorphic processes.
The tours were guided by:
Miriam Ben-Shalom (Lygm) – Project manager of Nahalal stream rehabilitation project;
Dr. Smadar Tanner (Newe Ya’ar) – Postdoc research associate
Dr. Maor Matzarfi (Newe Ya’ar) – Management of invasive weed species, researcher
Ronen Kfir (Newe Ya’ar) – Monitoring and research site supervision
Dr. Roey Egozi (Soil Erosion Research Station) – Watershed sciences, researcher
Tal Ratner (Kishon Drainage Authority) – Director of environment and community relations section
Lior Kamhaji from AGMA organized both field trips and she also run the Ma’ale Nahal Nahalal rehabilitation project blog where you can find more details and get updates.
