More Biodiversity Along the Alz Canal

On Wednesday, May 26, 2021, WACKER site manager Dr. Peter von Zumbusch and Reinhard Klett from the Altötting Landscape Conservation Association met up at Gufflham on the Alz canal to check up on progress of the biodiversity project. They were joined by several guests, notably Erwin Schneider, county commissioner and chairman of the Altötting Landscape Conservation Association; Johann Krichenbauer, mayor of Burgkirchen; and Dr. Martin Sommer from the German Association for Landscape Conservation.

Two years ago, Wacker Chemie AG provided 30,000 square meters of its own land along the Alz canal between Burgkirchen and Hirten for a project to enhance biodiversity. As part of the Bavarian landscape conservation program, the Altötting Landscape Conservation Association maintains this area, whose generous length makes a particularly effective contribution toward connecting biotopes. The goal is to restore and further develop a rich habit where a wide variety of flowers, grasses and insects can thrive.

It’s an ideal partnership, says von Zumbusch: “Wacker Chemie AG has the land and the Altötting Landscape Conservation Association has the expertise. I’m delighted that our joint biodiversity project will help improve the habitat for both fauna and flora.”

The partnership for this area is to be continued and additional seeds sown in order to achieve an interconnected habitat and thus promote the wildflower fields needed for insect diversity.

“As far as we’re concerned, the switchover to ecological cultivation of the land has been positive in all respects. The work done here has not had any negative consequences for operation of the Alz canal,” says von Zumbusch.

Based on this experience, Wacker Chemie AG is now going a step further: On an additional, similarly sized stretch of land along the Alz canal, the company will cease mulching and switch to mowing with removal of the cuttings in accordance with species protection regulations, and will maintain the meadows at its own expense.

To ensure its ecological contribution is of high quality, the company will select this additional tract of land, which could cover as much as 30,000 square meters, together with the experts from the Altötting Landscape Conservation Association.

“WACKER is an industrial enterprise whose focus extends beyond just corporate environmental protection. By supporting activities and projects aimed at protecting nature and the environment, we are also striving to enhance biodiversity – so as to be able to leave future generations a world worth living in,” says von Zumbusch.