Between October the 4th and October the 18th, 2021, vegetation clearing and soil stripping works was carried out in the Boada de Campos lagoon (Palencia), which constitutes one of the working wetlands of the project in the Tierra de Campos area.
Soil stripping constitutes a soil management action (on the surface without water) that favours the conservation of the lagoons, this being the most effective action for the better conservation of these wetlands in the long term. It consists of eliminating the accumulation of organic matter and dead vegetation collected for decades, from the first centimetres of the soil. With this practice, the rhizomes of the plants would also be eliminated, thus delaying their reoccupation.
In this case, the work consisted of the clearing or removal and prior chopping of the vegetation with a tractor of a total of 1.87 hectares and the removal of the surface layer of soil from the ground with a chain backhoe and motor grader, reaching between 15 and the 55 cm deep in an area of 1.54 ha divided between two areas of the lagoon. After this, the soil and organic matter (including the cleared or chopped vegetation) were transported with two dumper trucks for their extension in a local cultivation plot near the lagoon. Approximately 4,800 m3 of organic matter and soil were extracted, and this by-product is reused and acts as organic compost for said land, specifically destined for planting cereals in the village of Boada de Campos.
