YOUth FOR NATURE at Gesäuse National Park

How to start a fire without any tools or how to spend the night in nature without a tent...questions that young people from the Admont socio-educational residential group can answer after an adventurous overnight stay at the forest runners' camp. YOUth FOR NATURE made it possible for the young people to spend a night on the Hochscheibenalm and now be able to call themselves real survivalists.

To show their presence outside the national park, four highly motivated YOUth FOR NATURE members took part in the GRAWE Grazathlon on 14 June. Together they conquered a 5km obstacle course and proved that they can overcome more than just nature conservation hurdles.

From 11 March to 16 March, our team was invited to the Müritz National Park in Germany. Together with members and mentors from other European protected areas, we took part in a workshop organised by the Europarc Federation. As part of the workshop, we developed a guide for youth groups, learnt a lot of new things for the implementation of our own projects and had the opportunity to network better internationally!

YOUth FOR NATURE was invited to Parliament in Vienna by the Green Federal Councillors. There, we were given an exclusive tour and then presented our team and our projects as part of the "LOCAL HEROES" event.

At the end of October, our team spent a weekend in the Waldviertel. On Saturday, we visited the Heidenreichsteiner Moor Nature Park. The highlights were the observation of a pygmy owl and two white-tailed eagles as well as a short barefoot walk on the moor. We then travelled on to our accommodation in Hardegg, the smallest town in Austria. In the evening, a wildcat tour awaited us in the Thayatal National Park. On Sunday, we went on a guided hike through the national park and were able to gain an insight into the species-rich fauna and flora of the national park. It was a weekend where we not only learnt new technical things, but also had time to chat and get to know each other better outside of our project work.

Some of our members took part in the National Park Clean Up "Xeisputz" again this year. As a thank you to all the volunteers, we organised a veggie barbecue at the National Park Adventure Centre after the Xei Clean Up.

YOUth FOR NATURE has decided to organise and finance a trip to the Gesäuse National Park for the 4th grade of VS Liezen. The aim was to give all children the opportunity to go on a trip into the countryside and enjoy an outdoor activity. At the beginning of July, 66 pupils came to the Weidendom National Park Adventure Centre and were able to get to know the fauna and flora of the national park in small groups and become explorers themselves. Of course, there was no shortage of fun and games, and at the end each child was allowed to take home a self-made Fluffi mask.

In order to network with other youth organisations and communicate our projects better, we are now on Instagram!
Simply follow:

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YOUth FOR NATURE is very proud of the sandpiper folder that was published in spring. As a flagship species, this small wading bird has a special significance in the National Park. After all, it has the largest breeding population in Styria! The folder was designed in a particularly creative way to inform all visitors to the national park about this rare bird. The course of the year in the life of a sandpiper was depicted as a comic.
The free folder is available at the National Park information centres.

Due to the Corona pandemic, many children have been unable to participate in any or few outdoor events over the past two years. For the most part, gym classes or participation in sporting events was also not possible. In discussions with educators, the lack of physical activity among children during the Corona pandemic was a recurring theme. The Youth Advisory Council decided to address this issue and to help the partner kindergarten and the partner elementary school in Admont with exercise-promoting teaching materials.

Already in 2017 to 2019, a project on photography and identification of endemic insects and arachnids was supported by the GRAWE sidebyside Youth Advisory Council. This year, the focus was on the creative implementation and communication of the topic "endemics". The result is a coloring book with endemic species from the Gesäuse, enriched with little knowledge bites. Each species is presented with an ability that distinguishes it from others. The coloring book is intended to serve as a tool for nature and environmental education staff when teaching children about nature.

The winning pictures were awarded prizes at the Lichtbildgipfel Gesäuse on April 26, 2018. Our jury was very impressed by the quality of the pictures and the passion of the nature photographers.
We are grateful for our sponsor GRAWE sidebyside, who supported us in the competition and also participated in the judging of the pictures. We would like to thank Olympus, Dachstein and Gesäuse National Park for providing the material prizes. A big thank you also goes to all the photographers and specialists who took part in the identification of the submitted animals!

Since 2018 the broadcasts of the National Park Radio are not only available online(Cultural Broadcasting Archive)but also as podcasts on various channels. Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud .
Service of the Youth Advisory Council: Editing broadcasts and podcasts.