YOUth FOR NATURE at Gesäuse National Park

Am 16.3. veranstalteten wir erneut einen erfolgreichen Kleidertausch im Volkshaus Admont. Nach der positiven Resonanz im vergangenen Jahr freuten wir uns besonders, dass dieses Mal rund 90 Personen die Möglichkeit nutzten, ihren Kleiderschrank nachhaltig zu erneuern oder auszumisten!

Bei köstlichen regionalen Spezialitäten vom Buffet entstanden inspirierende Gespräche über weitere Wege, umweltbewussten Konsum zu fördern und im Alltag umzusetzen. Die nicht getauschten Kleidungsstücke fanden, wie schon zuvor, ein neues Zuhause durch unsere Spende an die Caritas Carla Läden in Admont und Stainach.

In September and October, YOUth FOR NATURE organised four film evenings on various topics related to nature conservation and environmental protection. After the films, there were exciting discussions with invited experts. The event took place in the seminar room of the Admont Mountain Rescue Service, to whom we would like to express our sincere thanks. Films were shown on the topics of activism, hydropower & river damming and the climate crisis & melting ice. In the discussions that followed, the visitors showed great interest and were able to take a lot of new ideas home with them.

In the last week of school, the 4th class of VS Liezen accepted our invitation to the national park. The YOUth FOR NATURE team came up with an interactive and fun programme. It was about animal tracks, the wild forest, crafts, games and lots of laughter.

On 5 April, YOUth FOR NATURE was a guest at the Styrian Spring Festival on Rathausplatz in Vienna. To teach visitors about nature, we devised an exciting quiz about spring bloomers. Our stand was visited with great interest by school classes and other visitors and we were able to have many interesting conversations about the national park and our projects.

On 25 February, we organised our first clothes swap at the Volkshaus Admont. Over 60 visitors browsed through numerous donated items of clothing, swapped them, learnt about the ecological context of textile production and enjoyed the regional buffet. We donated the remaining items of clothing to the Caritas Carla shops in Admont, Liezen and Stainach.

On 29 November, Vanessa and Sarah visited Nationalpark Radio. They introduced our team and talked about our successful projects from this year. You can listen to them in the Radio Library of the Free Radios or wherever podcasts are available!

YOUth FOR NATURE took on the current topic of "Last Generation" and organised a film month in September. Once a week, selected films on the topics of nature conservation, activism and hydropower were shown at the FOKUS photography school in Admont. The films were accompanied by specialist lectures and discussion panels and were met with great interest.

At the end of July, a small group of young adults were given the opportunity to actively contribute their opinions on the topics of nature conservation and research. YOUth FOR NATURE organised a weekend for all interested parties at the Buchsteinhaus. In addition to a fantastic backdrop and a guided hike, interactive discussions were held on sustainable topics. At the end of the workshop, concrete proposals for future scientific research were identified.

Pupils from the Ortwein School in Graz drew "self-portraits in the wilderness" last year for the 20th anniversary of the national park. The pictures were digitised this year and used by the GRAWE marketing department for a digital advertising campaign for YOUth FOR NATURE in Graz. We were also able to advertise our team outside of our region!

YOUth FOR NATURE members can now be recognised by their new T-shirts. All branded with our logo and sustainably produced, of course!

The "Jugendbeirat" starts 2023 with many new projects, new members and some changes. One major change concerns our name. Together it was decided to set "YOUth FOR NATURE" as the new name. This will also be reflected in our new logo in the future. YOUth FOR NATURE thus replaces the former "Jugendbeirat" of the Gesäuse National Park.

At the end of October 2020, the first tick monitoring in the Gesäuse National Park was launched and supported by the Youth Advisory Council. For this, 9 sites at different altitudes and exposures were sampled for ticks. In total, 197 passes were made and 422 ticks were collected. In addition, data on weather, time of day, temperature, and humidity were collected at ground level and at 130 cm. The sampling was carried out by interns and rangers of the National Park and ended in October 2021. The ticks were then sent to AGES for determination. In addition, the distribution of tick species related to season and altitude will be evaluated.

With this book, the photos of the photo traps that are set up in the Gesäuse National Park should no longer remain closed to children and parents. The photo traps help to find out how the animals of our forest behave when they feel unobserved. With the story "The whole forest is looking for TheREHsa", the theme of safety is brought to the fore and the book also aims to raise awareness of environmental protection. The book is available at the Infobüro Admont.

For several years now, lynx from the neighbouring Kalkalpen National Park have been regularly spotted in Gesäuse National Park. The presence of the cat is confirmed by means of photo traps and individual specimen have even been identified. Besides these shy felines, other animals are also captured on photos. It remains to be seen which pictures will be taken there.
Service of the youth advisory board: Financing of 3 cameras. Development of a children's story with the pictures of animal from the photo traps.

In the summer of 2017, the Youth Advisory Council organized a campaign on neophyte management.
Young people from the Admont Refugee Home assisted in repressing invasive species for one day.
We’d like to thank the partner companies Gesäuse Perle and Hallerbäck for the donations as well as the market town of Admont with former Mayor Hermann Watzl.
Service of the youth advisory council: organization, payment of the auxiliary staff, press work.