Salamander's project

Elisabet: this park was fixed in the 30s I think, because the houses, these houses, over here I think it something in the end of 20s.

Elisabet: : In the beginning, the school was not included as there was a garden association here, who organized the first salamander night and invited Stefan to discuss the issue. As I lived here, so I participated in that get together and then we all went first to the pond and afterwards, to the assembly hall in the school. It was long before, I started working here. I was here like a guest, just living in surrounding and was interested in the project.

Elisabet: Maybe they decided to figure out what species they had in their area and if there were any species endangered. I think it was that way, but I am not sure.

Elisabet: This is me and this is my college ( Britt-Inger Julin) So the first two years, she was also involved, but then she said: “If you want to take it over, you can do that.”

Elisabet: the (municipality) have a plan of taking care of this park and pond. That plan is from how to do that and it is from 2008. They voted that and that involves of looking over water level, cutting vegetation. Before they were always cutting vegetation in the begging of summer and in the middle, not thinking at all about the salamanders, just doing to prevent that it looks good. But now they do not cut vegetation till the end of the summer. Just not to disturb the development of the small ones.

Elisabet: it started in 2008 and since then we have been doing it every year.

Elisabet: Martina was speaking in the beginning of the meeting and she was telling about this project trying to replace salamanders to 2 km away from here in the place called Juda (?), where we know have been salamanders before. It was not there now. Then they constructed pond there, but then you cannot just take salamanders way from here putting them there, because they would walk back. Because this is where they were born. So they had to find something else and then what they did: Martina, she surounded pond over there, she put a fence height like this around the whole pond and then after the salamanders we found here, me and school children, then we took all these big species. We were supposed to collect 50 males and 50 females and put over there. The problem found out to be that as the animals were walking like here, it was still ice on the pond in the other lake, so we could not place them and time went and we were more and more nervous that we would not get 100 animals from here, as we should have. So then I and Martina, we met here at night 12 o’clock in the grass over there. It has been raining and we had tortures and so we lied in the grass looking for them and picked them and we got 50 males and 50 females. And we took it in the bucket on the bike and when to other pond and put them there. And then during the summer we hoped that they make/lay eggs, but we would not know and yes, of course we had to take away the fence for the small children be able to get up among the stones before winter. We wanted to called the growth ups before we took away the fence, so Martina, she dig down traps – small buckets – where they fell down and she succeeded to find 96 of 100. <…>And took them back here, and then took away the fence. Then we hoped that there should be small children and then they go up deep down in the ground for 2 years. And you did not know if it was success or not. And then last summer, it has been 2 or 3 years, and all of sudden; the pond over there was full of salamanders. And they are children and grandchildren of these ones and so now they live there. But the moment, when we were lying in the grass here with our tortures that was a great moment.

Elisabet: here was this lady living in one of the houses around the pond. Last year, she came by with her husband to inquire, if there’s anything she can do. I said well actually there is one thing. Since, it was a very sunny spring and I noticed when we went there, that smaller kids playing in the pool would destroy the heap and spread them out. So I asked her to take a walk around the pool in the evening to monitor if the heaps were ok. She did it actually during these warm days. She brought some tool to get the heaps together. She did that really.

Stephan: This is an old swimming pool that was established I think in the 1940-1950 or even earlier perhaps so part of these play grounds for children in different park areas in Stockholm

Stephan: really we had some investigations going on during the 1990´s trying to find out and also the close by the nature area judarn nature reserve, trying to find out some measurements on the situation of the amphibians <..> the idea was this resolution, that we would not allow any species to go more extinct in the Stockholm area <..> 1990 yes. The ideas came up you know. The problems for the biodiversity in the Stockholm urban areas. And how to manage that, for the future. And it was a combination of, how shall I say, surveys