In October 2016, the Vascão stream in the Cerro das Reliquias summer pool was dredged in order to increase the volume of water available to the fish fauna in summer time.
Last November another intervention took place, covering both sides of the catch. This was an action to recover the riparian vegetation, since one of the banks had a weak vegetation cover and the other bank there was a large patch of giant cane (Arundo donax). In general the riparian gallery was absent or very degraded, almost devoid of native plant species.
The work took place in three phases. The first consisted of cutting and removing on the left bank about 100 linear meters of giant cane and extraction of rhizomes, followed by covering the area with an organic blanket (to minimize erosion in the intervened slope).
In a second phase, the slope was stabilized using three natural engineering techniques ("biorolo", green wall and willow stick braiding).
Finally and in order to reestablish the riverside gallery, several species of native roots and shrubs were planted, such as the oleander, myrtle, tamarisk, ash and willow. On the right bank, the plant strata were thickened and complexed to an extent of 80m, using native plants and cuttings.
Taken together, the two interventions at Cerro das Reliquias covered around 2.000m2 and were based on a holistic view of the problems initially detected. The lack of water in the summer made deforestation indispensable and the absence of leafy river banks that inevitably contributed to a greater evaporation of water (which was already scarce) led to the need for vegetation renaturalization.
This approach has enabled us to address various problems using different practical conservation measures, contributing to the medium to long term improvement of the saramugo habitat with direct consequences on the improvement of its population situation, and other native fish that depend on this type of habitat to survive.
