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Biodiversity blooms in cities when green spaces go wild
by buteos

    Five years ago, Dessau, which is in Germany's former East, was characterized by a declining population and a plethora of abandoned buildings and vacant lots. To urban planners, rewilding made a lot of sense. So, the city started buying up enough unused properties and land to create a 120-hectare boomerang-shaped public green zone to return to nature. The grounds of existing housing estates became part of rewilding project. It was intended that 'daring' wilderness would not only encourage biodiversity, but make the city more attractive and improve the lives of the residents.

    "The extensive flowering meadows attract an amazing variety of species," Christiane Jahn, head of the city planning department, told DW, adding that the rich habitat resulting from the four-year project attracts songbirds, hedgehogs, butterflies and some of the 67 bee varieties endemic to the state of Saxony.

    While the outer perimeter of the wilding zone will be left to become woodlands again, the large inner meadows are managed — but only to a minimal degree, with the area only mowed once or twice annually.

    "They are very robust and tolerate drought in summer better than the short lawns of other green spaces," says Jahn of the meadows that proved resilient to the unusally dry summers of 2018 and 2019.