This is the Danube River,
the most international river in the world, and home to an abundance of life.
Insects, amphibians, fish, birds, reptiles
and mammals all coexist with the ebbing and flowing of this mighty river.
However, because of human action, much of this is disappearing.
With river ecosystems drying up or being outright destroyed.
And this, of course, is where we come in to try and do something about it.
A few months ago, we decided to spend €40,000 on a project to flood this forest right here.
And today, I am really excited to show you the results.
There are so many things I want to show you at our wetlands,
including trees doing something I had never before seen in my life.
But before we get into that and what our flooded forest looks like
I want to first explain why we did it.
And for that, it is crucial for you to understand the story of the Danube River.
And that story is all about water.
At the start it rains and pours, then it streams,
plunges, runs and merges until finally it flows.
We can measure all of this activity with the simple metric of discharge,
which is essentially the volume of water
passing in a channel measured in cubic meters per second.
If you want to picture it in terms of volume, one cubic meter
is comparable to a bookcase, a wardrobe or a small fridge.
With that in mind, let's look at the discharge of the Danube.
It starts at about 5.95 cubic meters per second in the Breg stream in Germany.
By the time it becomes the Danube proper and then reaches the border in Passau,
it is at 590 cubic meters per second.
Then it reaches 1900 in Vienna
2000 in Bratislava
2350 in Budapest
5600 in Belgrade.
And finally, 6470 in the Danube Delta.
But this is just an average, and there's actually a lot of variation
depending on the time of the year, which can be seen in this graph here
for Galati, in Romania, which is near the Danube Delta.
And it is this variation that leads to some areas flooding consistently
at least a few months per year,
creating a variety of wetland habitats, such as standing water,
marshes at different depths, flowing side arms, oxbow lakes, gravel islands,
floodplain meadows and of course, floodplain forests.
These ecosystems are crucial for a variety of species that will use
these flooded areas as nursing grounds and of course also as feeding grounds.
All kinds of species reproduce here, including a variety of amphibians and
fish, as well as many types of insects, such as dragonflies and mosquitoes.
Yes, you heard that right.
They're also part of the ecosystem and they're really important
for a variety of species.
Those species, in turn, also provide food for mammals
such as Foxes and Otters and birds such as Kingfishers,
Sand Martins, Bee-Eaters and waders like Herons.
One could study the complex links and dynamics of this ecosystem for a lifetime.
But what you need to remember is actually quite simple.
Thousands of species have evolved in sync with the river, ebbing and flowing, and of course flooding.
Which means that when that stops, it has a terrible impact on biodiversity.
And this is where we get to our problem.
The Gabčíkovo Dam was built here in 1992,
and it isn't your classic dam simply blocking a river.
They actually diverted the whole river.
This is impressive work, but also kind of insane.
So they built this barrier here
to control the flow and divert most of the river to this concrete channel
that then leads to the main hydroelectric power plant down here,
leaving only a small part of the river to run in its true riverbed.
And as you can imagine, this has had devastating consequences for biodiversity.
Just to give you an idea, fish abundance in this part of the Danube dropped by 70%.
That is how drastic this was.
And one could only imagine the long term repercussions this has on other species as well.
So I'm standing here next to the old Danube River,
which currently flows at 300 cubic meters per second, which is a lot
less than the average 2500 cubic meters that flow through the Danube.
So before the dam was built, the water used to reach
all the way up to where I am right now, I am actually standing on the bed of the old Danube.
But as you can see, there is quite a bit of level difference
right now between me and the river.
And our wetlands? Well, it's all the way back there.
So it's really hard to get water to it.
The area we are focusing on for our project are these 3000 hectares here.
Which are even more starved of water, as much of the old Danube
only floods the Hungarian side, which is lower.
The only water that enters this system comes from this passage here,
which lets about 60 cubic meters
per second of water flow from the concrete channel into this area.
So this is where our partners BROZ come in.
They have been restoring ecosystems along the Danube for decades now.
And in this area, they have done everything they can to help it retain more water.
And they have also restored sidearms and built channels
for the water to flow into areas that it used to flood in the past.
But crucially, what they have also done is to negotiate with the Water Management Service
to allow for controlled flooding at least a few months per year.
But more on this in a future video as it is really complex.
So we wanted to sink our teeth into an ambitious wetlands project, and Adriana
from BROZ did not hesitate to point us to this part right here called Istragov.
Of all the parts of the northern floodplain system,
this one is in the worst state.
Most of the 60 cubic meters of flow does not make it this far down
and rejoins the Danube before making it here.
It only really floods during simulated floods,
but even then, much of the water cannot reach the forest as the old water channels
were blocked by foresters back in the day to dry up the area for planting.
And this is why we decided to fund the digging of a channel to take the water
from this side arm here and flood two forests in Istragov.
Now if you're new here, at this point
you might be wondering how we get the time and the funding to do all of this.
So before I show you the flooded forest, I want to briefly tell you
about our community driven rewilding projects.
We essentially run a membership that every month plants trees in places
like the Carpathians, Iceland or here in the Danube floodplains,
and then also funds rewilding projects to help bring back a thriving wilderness.
These can range from this wetland project here in the Danube
to reintroducing red kites in Spain, bringing back kelp forests in Portugal,
or helping reduce Sea Otter disturbance in California.
We have a Discord Channel where you can chat with the team
an app to track your impacts
And of course, we communicate about our projects here on YouTube.
The membership is pretty cheap, but your money goes a long way in making an impact.
So if that sounds interesting to you, maybe head over to mossy.earth to learn more.
Now let's finally go look at our flooded forest.
I visited the area over two days with Adriana, Jakob,
Mishka and many others who all gave me their wisdom on the project.
To get to the area, you need to drive through a few dirt roads, and then to properly see
the flooded areas we got into our waders and headed into the forest.
This is the uh
the equipment required
This is quite wide, it can carry a lot of water.
and it is necessary to to be able to flood these wetlands.
From a biodiversity perspective, why do you think
these flooded forests are so important?
Well, they're called the Amazon of Europe
because they have so much diversity
and so much biomass.
So I think these are really special, special ecosystems.
And they're worth preserving.
So yeah this...
This is our wetland.
One thing you notice right away is that there are many mosquitoes everywhere
and also lots of other small insects.
And this is a really good sign because they're pretty much the base of the food chain here.
Then in the water, in between all the bits of floating wood and all the leaves,
I saw dozens of water snails with some really unique shells.
These are Kotúľka riečna and Vodniak vysoký
Are you happy with the amount you've managed to flood this year?
For the first year, yeah.
We can check where we can dig more,
which part we can continue or continue connected.
And next year, we hope we will reach
at least 70 hectares.
And then once you spend some time in our wetlands, the sound just fills your ears.
It's a symphony of life with birds leading the singing,
and amphibians providing the background track.
Underwater, you can see these little fish everywhere
which is amazing to see because it means that
in its first year of flooding, our forest is already a nursery
for all these different fish species, which is fantastic to see.
I think this beautiful wetland is the perfect example of rewilding.
A one-off intervention that unlocks a cascade of change for a whole area
that benefits not just one species, but the really wide range of biodiversity.
And then there's this beautiful effect, which I'd never seen before.
Some of the trees in our forest were producing a thin rain,
slightly heavier than a mist.
It was really hard to capture it on camera,
but you can see it in this shot here.
The only thing I can compare it to is the water carried
by the sea breeze, which gently falls on your face.
So I could not find much information about it, but Adriana from BROZ
thinks it happens because they're saturated with water from our flooding.
For me, it was a magical final touch on our beautiful wetlands
and made me love it even more.
So if you're not yet a member but you think this project
is worth supporting, then please head over to mossy.earth
We run a membership that restores nature across a wide variety of ecosystems,
and it is this community led funding that enables us to do this kind of work right here.
And if you are already a member, please remember to tell a friend. Every little bit helps
and we can do a lot more of this work if we have more members.
So again, a big thank you to all of you who contributed to this project.
It is a really big deal for us.
I am so happy to be standing here in this amazing wetlands.
Until next time.
Cheers.