Nevėžys landscape reserve expansion to better protect corn crake habitats

The Lithuanian Environment Ministry has proposed expanding the Nevėžys State Landscape Reserve to better protect the corn crake and other natural values, reports BNS.

If approved by the government, the reserve’s area would increase by 621 hectares to nearly 1,747 hectares, incorporating parts of Kaunas city’s Šilainiai district and Kaunas district’s Užliedžiai, Babtai, and Raudondvaris elderates.

The expansion would bring the entire Raudondvaris Manor estate, fragments of the Kačiūniškės Manor, the Babtynas Manor (also known as Žemaitkiemis), the Piepalių and Babtynas hillforts with their settlements, and a section of the Raudondvaris road within the protected area.

According to Tomas Tukačiauskas, an advisor at the ministry’s Nature Protection Policy Group, the goal is to preserve the most valuable complex of the lower Nevėžys River valley. The area is particularly important for its natural floodplain meadows—mesophytic hay meadows—which host a rich biodiversity, including corn crake habitats listed in Lithuania’s Red Data Book.

The expanded reserve would also cover 300 hectares of slope forests, home to the purple click beetle. Tukačiauskas noted two key complexes: natural meadows with corn crake habitats, untouched by ploughs, and the Nevėžys slopes, which near Kaunas become steeper and feature specific oak forests.

The corn crake population in the reserve has been monitored every two years since 2017, with estimates suggesting a stable population of 11–13 pairs. The Nevėžys reserve is one of the few areas in central Lithuania, a region of intensive agriculture, where the corn crake can breed in such numbers. The most significant populations in Lithuania are protected in the Nemunas Delta and Venta River Valley reserves.

Expanding the reserve would restrict new infrastructure development, including wind turbines, solar collectors, new farming areas, homes, roads, and bypasses. Existing manors, cemeteries, and parts of collective gardens would remain but no new ones would be allowed, except in special cases.

The Nevėžys Landscape Reserve was established in 1988.