Little Owl, Redstart and the Countess of Paris - they all now have a beautiful spot in the community of Heuchelheim. This is because Schunk, in cooperation with the local nature conservation association (Nabu), has planted new fruit trees in an old meadow orchard in the Kinzenbach village. What makes the meadow so valuable for nature is the mix of young and old trees, whose hollows provide habitats for insects and birds, as Gerhard Wiese from Nabu Heuchelheim reports.
As in other central Hessian towns, orchard meadows were part of the townscape in Heuchelheim for centuries. Since the middle of the last century they had to give way however gradually new development in the local edge situations - with it disappeared also important habitats and retreat areas for the animal world.
Today, only a few meadow orchards remain - these must be preserved for the future in order to protect biodiversity. The fruit meadow in Kinzenbach belongs to the municipality of Heuchelheim, which takes care of it together with Nabu. To carefully supplement the tree population, Schunk has now donated some fruit trees - all of them old varieties of fruit trees, such as the so-called Countess of Paris, an old type of pear. This preserves a multifaceted habitat for the redstart and the little owl, for example, both of which are on the forewarned list of endangered species.
Schunk focuses on sustainability
"Sustainability is a very central issue for Schunk," says David Sickel, Technical Site Manager at the Heuchelheim site. "That's why we're pleased to be able to implement projects like this together with the municipality of Heuchelheim and Nabu." The meadow orchard is just the latest in a whole series of small but valuable projects in which Schunk has created habitats for various animal species either at the site itself or in its vicinity. In the past and with the expert advice of Nabu, for example, a bat vault, a lizard habitat or a swift tower have been created.