The Notranjska Regional Park team, backed by the expertise of representatives of the Fisheries Institute, the Institute for Nature Conservation and the Bird Watching and Research Society (DOPPS), took a close look at the location where they will once again bend the artificially leveled riverbed of the Stržen stream.

In the Ključi area, we looked at how the new curves are going to be made, defined the area where the reeds are going to grow again, that will have to be removed because of the intervention, and where the little bittern will have its own nesting area. We will extend the Stržen stream by 1.5 km, and the water retention time will be extended in the central part of the year. After the tour, DOPPS has already begun to prepare professional instructions to the park on how to properly maintain the area so that it is as friendly as possible to the Eurasian bittern, as well as to other lake-specific birds.

In the past, the unpredictable nature of Lake Cerknica has been sought to be tamed in various ways. The locals wanted to dry it again, and then they even planned to have a hydroelectric plant on it. In fact, it has been hardest hit by the drainage operations of recent centuries that sought to shape lake soil for agriculture and animal husbandry. Thus, they reduced the time when water was retained in the lake, which in turn had a fatal impact on the habitat of many plants and animals, which therefore disappeared from there. It also threatened the nesting grounds of a mysterious, rare bird of Eurasian bittern who lives in Slovenia only on Lake Cerknica.

In order to restore the lake to its original state and to provide the Eurasian bittern and other birds with the right living conditions again, the park, with the help of the European project Life Stržen, will rebuild the valleys where the riverbed has been leveled. The plan is in place, and work will begin in August, only then the fish spawning and bird nesting will not be compromised by digging.