In the rainy season a stream of water is flowing right through the landscape of Vinha Velha. It is naturally formed in the lowest part of the landscape: this is where the water is accumulating after heavy rainfall. It starts at our neighbours in the east, and flows down to the land of our neighbour on the West.

Off course it is good to have such stream flowing through the land. But it is better to keep the water in the landscape. Preventing it to flow away to the rivers, and eventually to the see, taking topsoil and nutrients on its way. We want to create possibilities to keep this scarce resource stored on our land. Giving it a change to penetrate the soil and feed our underground water sources. So in the intensely dry summers, we can build up some reserve to help nature thrive. This way we could have a huge impact on the ecosystem.

This is why we organize a big intervention to restore the waterline here.
It will involve a two day workshop guided by forest experts of Eco Interventions to:

• build dams so the water can be absorbed by the soil
• clean and prune surrounding trees and mulch this material to create biomass (groundcover)
• plant a diverse mix of tree species along the waterline: they are the natural waterabsorbers. Their rootsystems will keep water in the ground and keep the soil together.
• after the workshop, we will introduce three bee colonies in collaboration with our local bee keeper.

For this workshop we invite locals to join so it can be a benefit to the all: Everybody can learn and we can have an impact together to restore an important part of the ecosystem. The source of all life that is so scarce around here: water.

For the bee colonies we organize a small intervention with our beekeeper. He will install 3 beehives in the area to boost the area and restore the bee population.