Few school schoolchildren in the Hungarian capital can boast about having a 40 hectare piece of land close to their school that they can visit at any time.
We, the schoolchildren of the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor primary school have a wonderful place available to us, just a few bus stops away from our school: the Merzse marshlands. Here is our story:
Our parents and our grandparents were also able to take full advantage of this piece of land... But in those days, the area of marshland was very much bigger than it is today. There was a lot more water, many more animal and plant species...
Over the last few decades, our marshland has been drained because the airport buildings have been extended onto a part of this land. The aquatic habitat has been almost entirely destroyed.
Luckily, in 1990, the capital's town council put an end to this destruction: wells were drilled in order to gradually fill the lake with water; a bird-watching hide was even set up. We know that it will be many years before our marshland is returned to its original state, but already in spring we can see protected plants like the Buda Centaurea. Birds come and nest in the trees, we have even come across different species of frog, grass snakes, foxes, hares and deer on the meadow that surrounds the marshland in the forest of willows and poplar trees!
This example helps to maintain the diversity of the species and makes the areas around houses more pleasant and healthier.
