The document is a newsletter from the English-speaking section of a Luxembourg nature conservation organization. It discusses increasing membership and volunteer involvement to help the organization's conservation efforts. It promotes upcoming nature trips and events over the next few months that English speakers can participate in, such as birdwatching, practical conservation work, and learning about renewable energy. It also provides information on how to become a paid member of the organization.

1. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Membership and volunteering
What, in your opinion, should an English-speaking section of a Luxembourg nature conservation
organisation be setting out to do?
It’s an important question, and one that needs input from as many of our readers/members as
possible.
Membership, of course, is the principal driving force. For a conservation NGO to be as effective as
possible, it needs to demonstrate, to government and to civil society in general, that it represents a
sizeable proportion of the population. natur&ëmwelt already has some 13 000 members, which is
quite a remarkable number given the size of the country. But it communicates in the national
languages Luxemburgish, German and (to a lesser extent) French. It realises that it needs to reach
out more to the large number of people who live in Luxembourg, but who use English as their lingua
franca.
So outreach and contact are two of our principal concerns. Having got in touch with you good people
out there, though, we want to give you the chance to get involved. There are various levels of
involvement:

we can, and do, offer nature-related trips and excursions — enjoyable, but basically passive;

we can, and do, offer more hands-on ways of getting involved, i.e. practical conservation
projects; and

we can also offer more sedentary, but equally vital, work: translation, for instance, and
organisation/administration.
More about all these forms of involvement in this newsletter.
If you feel you’d like to get more involved, contact us at the e-mail address below.
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And now, on the next page, all you need to know about our upcoming activities over the next
few months.
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And for details of how to become a paid-up member of natur&ëmwelt, go to page 7 of this
newsletter and fill in the application form.
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

2. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Upcoming events in the early part of 2014
There’s a lot planned for the first five months of this new year. We can offer:

8 February: practical conservation work to clear and create breeding habitat for the acutely
threatened Grey Partridge (see also page 3);

Starting in March: an introduction to, and demonstration of, bee-keeping (remember — bees
are likewise under severe threat);

8 March: an organic wine-tasting event;

29 March: a visit to Beckerich to see how a progressive commune is tackling the generation
and distribution of renewable forms of energy; and

16-18 May: a birdwatching trip to the Kaiserstuhl in south-western Germany (see separate
article on page 4).
For all these events, you need to register (the sooner the better) by clicking on the following link and
following the simple instructions: http://www.eventbrite.com/o/naturampemwelt-english-speakingsection-2814647574
We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible as often as possible.
Meanwhile, please check that your membership of natur&ëmwelt is up to date. You need to do
this in order to stay on our mailing list. Full details are on page 7.
‘We’, by the way, is the current organising and coordinating committee of the English-speaking
section:
Mikis Bastian, David Crowther, Beatrice Eiselt, Laura Gouvras, Marie Kayser, John Park, Mea Shepard,
Marianne Thiry, Pam Tunney
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If you’d like to join us, or just enquire generally about how you might be able to help, please e-mail
us at the address below.
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

3. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Giving partridges a helping hand
Practical conservation work is one of the best ways of de-conserving energy and doing
something really useful for our natural environment. The helpers at our recent ‘Fit by nature’
event included a strong team of scouts. Here, one of their number describes the day.
The object of the day was to clear a stretch of land in order to create habitat for the Grey Partridge
(Perdix perdix), which is a type of bird that is very rare in Luxembourg. Partridges spend most of the
time on the ground, so it is even more important to give them as much habitat as we can.
The day began at 9.30am and ended at 3pm. It started with Marie explaining that we were cutting
trees; she showed us how to use the tools to do so and where to find them. Marie also showed us
the boundaries of where we could cut to. I still wasn’t sure why we were cutting down lots of trees
though, but I went along with it nevertheless.
What more would a scout want than a saw or a pair of giant clippers and a fire? Seeing as we are
Explorers and we are ‘responsible’, we were asked to chop trees and pile them onto the fire! I think
that most of us turned up to fill in hours for our Mérite Jeunesse award, but we all enjoyed it. Some
people are doing their Bronze and some already Gold.
Later on, one of the people who were organising the event explained why we were doing what we
were.
I think it was for a good cause and it meant that we were outside for a long period of time. But
perhaps if there had been more of a goal, for instance if we had been put into teams and made it into
a competition, it could have been even better.
I got this idea when a couple of us were laughing at the two fires the male leaders were making. We
were laughing because their fires were inferior to ours. Let’s just say we made sure they knew that.
But then again we had Marie, so that helped. Whatever fire Marie helped with would suddenly be
the best, so one of the helpers thought that Marie had ‘magic fingers’.
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Anonymous, aged 14
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

4. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Kaiserstuhl, for the second time of asking...
If you didn’t come with us to the Kaiserstuhl last year, you missed a rare treat.
There’s a second chance coming around in the spring, though, so why not consider coming along this
time? We’ll be leaving Luxembourg in the afternoon of Friday, 16 May and returning late afternoon
/early evening on Sunday, 18 May.
We’ll arrange car-sharing and tell you how to book hotel rooms; everyone will pay his/her own hotel
and restaurant bills (which won’t be excessive). The number of places is severely restricted (because
of the availability of hotel rooms). We recommend registering early here:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/kaiserstuhl-bird-watching-weekend-trip-tickets-8393245423
To whet your appetite, here’s what happened last year:
Birding on the Emperor’s Seat
The ‘Kaiserstuhl‘ is a volcanic pimple in the landscape: on its own, in the Rhine plain in the bottom
left-hand corner of Germany. Actually, it’s a bit more than just a pimple. It includes a few villages, a
bit of market gardening, and a lot of wine-growing terraces, carved back-breakingly out of the hard
rock, but with a remarkably thick cover of wind-blown loess soil.
It’s a very special region, with an equally special fauna and flora. It’s one of the warmest places in
Germany. It’s why we (a group of naturalists from the English-speaking section of the national
conservation organisation ‘natur&ëmwelt’) went to visit it one weekend this May.
It was, as everywhere else this year, a late spring, and we timed our visit to perfection. The
Kaiserstuhl’s star turn, a breeding colony of spectacular Bee-eaters, would normally have been well
into their breeding business by the time we arrived. But in fact we and the Bee-eaters arrived
together, joining some of the region’s other resident or recently returned ornithological specialities,
like breeding Hoopoe, Wryneck, Peregrine Falcon and Hen Harrier. Birds and humans got very good
sightings of one another.
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Our group enjoyed expert guidance and fieldcraft from some really knowledgeable members and
friends. It won’t be the last such trip we’ll be doing. If you want to know more about our present and
future plans, and about how to join in on our walks, excursions and practical conservation activities,
drop us an e-mail at ne.english.section@gmail.com.
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

5. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Migrating birdwatchers: to the Lac du Der and back in a day
The Lac du Der, in the Champagne region of France, exerts a magic attraction on birdwatchers from
Luxembourg — and not just because of the cranes. 10-year-old Alan Stock went on our day trip in
November. Here are his impressions.
When we arrived at the Lac du Der, my first impression was how huge the lake was. It is the largest
man-made lake in Western Europe, covering 48km². We couldn't help wondering about the three
villages which had been submerged for it to be made and the people who lost their homes and land.
My next impression was how cold the wind was that blew off the lake and Mum and I soon had to put
on all our extra clothes. We ate our lunch huddled together in the shelter of a small wall and
wondered where all these cranes were. There didn't seem to be a bird in sight.....
After lunch we found the rest of the group crowded into a hide and to our delight saw some little
egrets flying over the tops of the trees. We also saw my current favourite bird, the elegant great
crested grebe; quick swerving northern lapwings; swans and, of course, mallards. The birdy man let
me look through his telescope at a European stonechat pecking about along the edge of the lake.
We got back on the coach and drove round to the other side of the lake. There was general
excitement on seeing fields of egrets on our way round and we all cheered when a shaft of sunlight
filled the coach. The weather was finally picking up and my hopes were raised at the sight and sound
of several flocks of common cranes flying in from all directions.
The birds are attracted by the deep waters, the islands and the rich plant-life of the lake. It was
fantastic watching them all. As time went on, more and more cranes appeared in small, noisy flocks
and it was quite amazing even though there weren't as many as we had hoped (there can be up to
80,000 cranes). They were also quite dispersed and tended to gather on distant sand banks.
It was a really great trip and I really enjoyed myself. Thanks.
by Alan Stock (aged 10)
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If you would like to help conserve wetlands in
Luxembourg, please make a donation to the Fondation
‘Hëllef fir d’Natur’,
IBAN LU89 1111 0789 9941 0000, quoting ‘Wetlands’.
Thank you!
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

6. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Communicating in English
Given that our raison d‘être is to build bridges between our Luxembourg NGO natur&ëmwelt and its
English-speaking supporters, one of the most important things we can do is make material which has
so far been available only in Luxemburgish, German or French accessible in English too.
We now have more and more of the ‘static’ pages on natur&ëmwelt’s website in English translation.
For this, thanks are due more recently to Laura Gouvras and Nick Carter. Also, we have started
reproducing articles from the national membership magazine Regulus in English translation.
To access all this material, go to the natur&ëmwelt website at http://www.naturemwelt.lu and click
on ‘EN’ in the top right-hand corner.
If you feel you’d like to help us make more of our material available in English and think you can
handle translation from French or German into English, please get in touch with us at
ne.english.section@gmail.com. As we’ve said before, volunteering and getting involved can take all
kinds of forms: translation is one of them.
Another is helping to run the section and to organise specific events. If you feel you’d like to devote a
little of your spare time to what we hope you think is a worthwhile enterprise, please get in touch
with us at ne.english.section@gmail.com.
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The more people are prepared to pitch in and help with day-to-day administration, the more fun it is
for all of us!
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

7. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Membership information
We're trying to help wildlife in all kinds of ways. Your support is crucial so that we can carry out vital
work for nature in Luxembourg. Join today to help your local wildlife.
We create and improve habitats for birds and other wildlife, protect plant communities, maintain
hedges, orchards, etc.
We also organise outings, excursions, seminars, courses and conferences on the wildlife and the
environment in Luxembourg, such as:



guided birdwatching walks in Luxembourg;
visits to our LIFE projects, such as the freshwater mussel rearing station; and
"Get Fit by Nature", e.g. practical conservation work to help clear part of a site and create a
wildflower meadow surrounded by a diverse and natural hedgerow, which will provide
shelter and a barrier against the surrounding farmland, and habitat for the Grey Partridge.
All the above examples need your support, financial as well as physical.
natur&ëmwelt asbl offers its members:




online newsletters in English with news and events especially for English speakers;
4 issues per year of the membership magazine ‘Regulus’, with reports and information on
nature protection and conservation. This magazine is primarily in German;
outings, excursions led by English-speaking guides; and
a shop selling nature-related products in the House of Nature in Kockelscheuer.
Individual membership: 12€ /year (plus a donation, if you wish)
Family membership: 20€ /year (plus a donation, if you wish)
Please pay your membership fee to our bank account:
BCEE
LU67 0019 8000 0994 5000
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Thank you!
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com

8. English-speaking Section
January 2014 newsletter
Standing order form for membership
I, the undersigned member:
Name
Street and number
City
Postal Code
Email address:
Country
authorise the association:
natur&ëmwelt, 5, route de Luxembourg, L-1899 KOCKELSCHEUER
to deduct on an annual basis from the year starting:
and until I cancel in writing, the membership fee of:
Individual membership:
minimum 12 euro (plus donation if you wish)
Family membership:
minimum 20 euro (plus donation if you wish)
from my bank account number (IBAN):
at the bank:
name of account holder:
address of account holder, if different
from above:
This annual standing order replaces all previous standing orders for membership.
I also agree to any increase in the annual membership fees.
Place:
Date:
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Signature of member and account holder:
Contact us: ne.english.section@gmail.com