Bears, Wolfs and Lynx are attracting British wildlife enthusiasts to National Park Risnjak.
At NP RISNJAK, CRNI LUG in the mountain region of Gorski Kotar, the members of British organization Woodland Ways, directed by Jason Ingamells are running yearly educational wildlife workshops. They observe, track and help collect information in order to better understand and preserve local wildlife and nature. Woodland Ways teach outdoor survival and animal tracking in the UK and abroad.
The relationship between Woodland Ways and NP Risnjak started a couple of years ago, via Croatian Snjezana Jojic who grew up here in the National Park area. Having spent time living in the UK, Snjezana got in contact with one of the Lead Instructors at Woodland Ways – Kevan Palmer who become one of the initiators of this successful expedition.
Woodland Ways aim to help
The area of NP Risnjak is abundant in variety of flora and fauna. Woodland Ways special interest here are three large predators; bear, wolf and lynx, which are extinct in the UK. Woodland Ways first to this area as in 2014 and they were absolutely thrilled by its unspoiled nature. They have been coming back ever since. During their stay the group record and monitor wildlife signs on daily basis. The information is shared by both organizations and is used for further study purpose.
Their other important aim is to involve local community as much as possible so that local people benefit too. The group arranges to stay in local homes, buys from local shop and eat homemade local cuisine.
2017 – First Winter visit
After two years of a successful co-operation between NP Risnjak and Woodland Ways who usually run their educational trips during spring and/or autumn, will also be making a winter trip in February 2017. The group will spend one week at the remote location of Lazac with the aim to observe flora and fauna in the snowy, winter conditions. They will practice and teach some of the outdoor survival techniques too – man v nature, unplugged from daily luxuries and commodities such as the use of internet. All the information from this study will also be passed onto NP Risnjak.
Silvija who is the head of the marketing at the NP Risnjak and the Ranger Miro commented;”the level of professionalism and knowledge of Woodland Ways Instructors and their groups are great and they are a pleasure to collaborate with. We are also extremely grateful and excited about the night vision cameras donated by Woodland Ways so we can share the recorded footage.
Owl observation project
The Director of NP Risnjak Miljekno Gasparac is grateful and appreciative for the ongoing support and the experience shared by the Woodland Ways team in the project of Owl.
Article by; Marinko Krmpotic
Translation; Snjezana Jojic
This text is translated from an article feature in Croatian Newspaper Novi List (pic below)
20 min interview (in Croatian & English) via Radio Rijeka reporter Branka Malnar
