Dutch black-tailed godwit victory

This is a video on a group of white storks in the Oostvlietpolder.

The Oostvlietpolder is a meadow area close to Leiden city in the Netherlands.

Barn owls and long-eared owls live there.

This spring, there are about twenty black-tailed godwit nests.

For years, the Oostvlietpolder was threatened by loony local government plans to make it an industrial estate. While many existing industrial estates are half empty because of the economic crisis.

For years, the people living around the Oostvlietpolder meadows have fought those government plans. They have won.

Now, the Leiden Stadskrant of 27 April reports that the area will not become an industrial estate, but a nature reserve. It will be managed by the regional environmental organization Zuid-Hollands Landschap.

As it is still nesting season in the Oostvlietpolder now, work there will not start immediately. But after the breeding season, the area will be made more fit for nature and nature lovers. The Oostvlietpolder will then become a link between existing natural beauty areas Cronesteijn and Vlietlanden.

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