News

Once again, the Consorci de l’Estany, together with the association LIMNOS and the Darder Museum, celebrated the World Wetlands Day as a commemoration of the Ramsar Convention signed in 1971 for the protection of aquatic ecosystems worldwide. This year's motto is "We are not powerless against climate change".
Taking advantage of this commemoration, every year we aim to publicize one of the various wetlands in the Pla de l'Estany region. This year, Pond Espolla (in Catalan: Estanyol de la Platja d'Espolla) was chosen.
Thus, last Sunday, February the 3rd, a guided tour of the Estanyol d'Espolla was carried out by Carles Quer, a biologist and member of LIMNOS, and Miquel Campos, technical coordinator of the Consorci de l'Estany.
Thirty people attended the visit and were able to explore the new itinerary around the Estanyol d'Espolla that was opened last summer.
During the visit, it was possible to discover its unique hydrological mechanism, which leads it to fill up every now and then with groundwater coming from the Alta Garrotxa region, as well as other peculiarities such as: the piezometer located next to the pond that measures the groundwater pressure; how the pond is managed; which are its natural values in terms of fauna and flora; and even the Paleolithic site found in the area.
The pond’s social services and the human impacts affecting it were also recalled: the shooting range, the quarry, the motocross field, the highway and the industrial park. Finally, they dedicated some moments to talking about the water springs, the amazing living-fossil Triops cancriformis and the amphibians, all of them treasures of this unique site.
The organizing entities want to emphasize that this itinerary, which currently covers only half of the pond, allows to improve the vision of the Estanyol d'Espolla and at the same time regulates the accesses and reduces the impact of visitors on the site. Also, informative panels and dioramas representing the species which inhabit the site.
They also highlight the importance of raising awareness among visitors in order to avoid inopportune behaviors such as those occurred in recent years when the lake filled up.
You can check the news on Banyoles TV at the following link

This year  the campaign "A Year of Vertigo," is implemented as an action of the European project LIFE Potamo Fauna, to make them known to society

• In 2015 the release of native european pond turtles to the river Ter will begin. They will be bred in the Albera Tortoise Breeding Centre (CRT).

On November 26 was held in Tarragona an internal training course "Active with new programs 2014-2020" organized by the city of Tarragona.

El Consorcio del Lago con la colaboración del Centro de Reproducción de Tortugas de la Albera (CRT) y Limnos estuvo presente los días 14, 15 y 16 de noviembre en la Feria de Sant Martirià y del Firestany de Banyoles para informar del proyecto LIFE Potamo Fauna y de los valores naturales del espacio natural del lago de Banyoles, y concretamente acercar especies desconocidas para la gente como son los anfibios y el galápago europeo a los visitantes de la Feria . Durante los tres días pasaron por la feria unas 30.000 personas; destacar también que el viernes visitaron la feria más de 1.000 escolares.

• Thursday April 3 at 6 pm in the Auditorium Josep Irla of the Catalan Goverment in Girona (Square Pompeu Fabra, 1).

• The Consortium has published the Layman's Report that describes briefly the main activities and results of the Estany Project (LIFE + Nature: Improvement of habitats and species in the Natura 2000 network Banyoles: a demonstration project).

• The paper summarizes the impact of the project: the release of 20,000 native fish in the lake, the capture and elimination of 600 turtles and 100000 exotic fish, the release of 130 native pond turtles, the recovery of 12 hectares riparian forest or the release of nearly 500 naiads of 2 ½ years and 3 cm. length of the lake bred in a laboratory.

It has been managed to breed freshwater mussels in captivity. The results of the project could be exported to other freshwater ecosystems .

The freshwater mussels are bioindicators species and most are in a critical situation of threat.

The laboratory breeding of freshwater mussels ( naiads ) of " Estany Project" has managed to breed , raised and kept in captivity until his release , hundreds of naiads of 2 ½ years old and almost 3 cm in length. This is a fact hitherto not had been achieved across the European Union. This result is part of the proceedings for the recovery of endangered species of Unio mancus and U. ravoisieri naiads within the Estany Project, conducted by the Consortium Estany with the collaboration of Dr. Rafael Araujo of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid ( MNCN -CSIC ) . This project has been funded ( LIFE08 NAT/E/000078 ) LIFE program of the European Commission.