The green dessert of the Netherlands! Walking 2 meters below sea level!

Good morning Wednesday walkers!

I started my walk with a little drive! I was visiting my parents who live in, what they call, the green hart of the Netherlands! But I cal it the green dessert!

This because it's miles and miles of green grassland! It's a special kind of grass, perennial ryegrass! Its a dense growing grass that grows relative fast! It is an ideal crop for the dairy and meat industry! Many people in the Netherlands think it looks very natural because it's green so it's nature! But I know it's industrial size growing crops! No clover, flowers or any other herb-rich plants grow there, just the grass!

And that's is extremely bad for biodiversity! No bugs here that feed on the flowers, so less birds and other predators! There is also not enough oxygen getting in the soil because of the dense structure of the grass and roots! So bottom life is also in very bad condition! that's wy the farmers need to ad a lot of fertilizer. And we all know that that's really not good for the environment!

What we do have a lot of is geese! They love to eat the young green grass! And now the farmers are mad again, that they eat all the young grass! All this green grass is just a big welcome sign for geese flying over!

This is a little parking spot, created by the local counsel, so people could walk along the small paths that cross these large grass areas!

They do have a new policy that the boarders and the edges of the roads and ditches need to contain flowers! We really need this for the biodiversity but it's so little!

In between the fields, the local council created some hiking trails! They try and make some green spots and little nature area's to boost the biodiversity more and to have more recreation spots!
This does looks like a nice path you would like to walk on right?

In between all the grass lands they dug these ditches! This is to drain away the excess groundwater! They need a low water level because otherwise the fields will be flooded and the farmers will no longer be able to get onto their land, with their agricultural vehicles, to mow the grass! Also, if cows even get outside, they cannot graze on the marshy land! I say if they come outside, because the farmers prefer to leave them in the stable! That means less work to let them in and out, and they can regulate the food better so that they produce more milk!

Al this water needs to go some were! That's were these come in! This is a pumping station! they are spread out all over the lower part of the Netherlands!

All heights in the Netherlands are measured relative to the same level, the Normal Amsterdam Peil (NAP). A NAP height of 0 m is approximately equal to the average sea level of the North Sea. So this water is minus 2,70 meters below sea level!

Do you see the difference here? It's approximately half a meter ore less but if you see all the pictures above here, that I took on the lower part of the water, half a meter of water is like a big flood.

Its a little difficult to see but this walking path is actually a dike! On the right side is a lower water level than on the left side! These path's are made of thick clay so water doesn't go trough it!

Thank you for reading my post! And if you want to see all the places I have ever been to, just click on my Pinmapple profile!

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