| Pool, pond or canal | A pool and pond are still bodies of water, usually at a lower location in the landscape. Ideally, it will naturally retain water all year round. Originally, a pool was mainly constructed as a drinking place for cattle. Nowadays, the construction and restoration of ponds is usually done to increase natural values. After all, a pool brings a lot of life to the environment. The rich aquatic vegetation that can develop in it, in turn, provides a varied animal world, such as frogs, dragonflies, ... A pond is a relatively small lake created by humans. They often serve to collect water. In addition, they have an aesthetic function as an embellishment of a garden or park. Also for keeping fish. If they are constructed naturally, they have an important ecological function, just like the pools. |
| Row of trees | In a row of trees, the trees are spaced apart and the undergrowth is grassy to rough. The row of trees can consist of deciduous trees, trees that are pollarded or not, or coniferous trees. A pollarded tree is a tree that is stripped of its crown every few years, after which it can grow again. Gnarled pollarded trees have been a familiar sight in our cultural landscape for centuries. The trees served as a border fence and as a wood supplier. The best-known species, the willow, provided "toes" (or long flexible twigs) for weaving baskets, mats and revetments (constructions that protect a bank or waterfront against e.g. caving). Old pollarded trees often tell a story. They are located at strategic (intersection) points, at chapels or as important border divisions. These trees still have their uses today: they provide structure to the landscape, are a breeding ground for many animal species and... they can regularly provide a supply of firewood. |
| Woodside, wood wall and other high green | A small forest, a number of shrubs and trees together. A good woodside consists of three layers: tall trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. Due to their varied structure and versatile range of blossoms and fruits, they are a very important habitat for many animal species. Badgers, deer and hedgehogs, but also various amphibians like to stay there and find a shelter there. Because it is a linear landscape element, mammals can move unseen in their search for food. A wood bank or tree bank is an earthen bank overgrown with trees and shrubs, which forms a linear element in a landscape. They are of special landscape and ecological significance and are home to a wide variety of plant and animal species. The slope offers variation in wet/dry and warm/cold. The sunny side is especially interesting for insects, amphibians and reptiles, the shaded side for ferns and mosses. Other tall green trees are trees that are not mapped on the biological valuation map but do appear in the satellite images (>1.5 m). |
| Hedge, shrubs and elements of heath | Hedges form a special habitat where many plant and animal species feel at home. Many species use hedges as orientation points or to move sheltered from one place to another. A looser hedge, with its blossoms, berries and fruits, is an ideal food source for many bees, butterflies, birds, small mammals, etc. Shrubs also have these useful properties. |
| Traditional orchard | Standard fruit trees are all wild and cultivated apple, pear, plum, cherry, sour cherry and nut trees that have a trunk length of 1.8 to 2.3 meters. They used to be very common, so they have an important cultural-historical value. Traditional orchards are of inestimable value to many animals: birds, small mammals and insects use the (fallen) fruit as a food source. If there is shelter around the fruit trees (tall grass, wood edges, etc.), a large number of animals can often live there. In an old traditional orchard with sufficient cavities in the trees you can find many cave-nesting birds and perhaps even a bat. |
| Sunken road | A sunken road is a road that has been worn out or dug out and is therefore lower than the surrounding landscape. The verges of a restored sunken road may be grassy or overgrown with trees and shrubs. Most sunken roads probably originated in the Middle Ages. In our intensively used landscape, sunken roads are of great importance for plants and animals. They sometimes house the last remnants of wild nature in the middle of vast fields and serve as a connecting road between forests and other pieces of nature that are fragmented in the area. Many birds, butterflies, bats, rodents, badgers, ... find food and shelter in sunken roads. They build their nests or setts there or use the sunken roads to move through the landscape. (add to category heathland and shrubs, shrubs) |
| Reed collar | A reed collar is a short or long, but always narrow, maximum two to three meters wide strip of reeds standing on a pond bank along or floating on the water surface of a waterway that is not too narrow. There is also often reed in places with seepage. (add to wet nature category, reed) |
| Grass strips, verges and other elements of grass and brush | A verge is a strip of land along a road, which is usually mowed once or several times a year and which is overgrown with grassy and herbaceous plants. They serve to support the road. Grass (herb) strips along agricultural plots collect mud from higher-lying fields, provide field and meadow birds with summer food and nesting and shelter and ensure that chemical pesticides and fertilizers do not end up in streams, wooded areas, herb-rich verges, etc. Because roads are crossing the whole of Flanders, the roadsides form interesting connecting axes between the various nature reserves. Ecological management ensures flower-rich grasslands and bushes in which animals can move easily. Other low green is all greenery lower than 1.5 m that is not immediately identified but can be seen on the satellite images. |