Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – Birds help with reforestation in the Hessian forests. The native jay is used, as the Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) Hessen and Hessenforst explain. Acorns – this bird’s favorite food – are laid out on special tables so that the animals can carry them away and distribute them in the forest.
Jays store supplies over the winter. A single animal hides up to 5000 acorns in one season. The good thing from the point of view of nature conservation is that sometimes things go wrong. The jay loses acorns during transport or does not find all supplies again. “And with that he plants acorns for us free of charge,” says Nabu-Hessen Managing Director Mark Harthun.
Harthun thinks that high tables are “a really great thing”. “It costs little, the effort is low and the success rate is high.” Hessenforst also thinks Hähertische is a great idea, but does not use this method systematically. When new oak trees are to be sown, people tend to rely on manual labor so that as little as possible of the valuable seed is lost. Incidentally, one should not collect acorns just anywhere and tip them onto the table, explains spokeswoman Michelle Sundermann: Acorns must be from the same stock.
