Last week, the students of the partner Agricultural College and Agricultural Secondary School Benešov participated in the first run of the advanced course focused on the establishment of the species-rich grasslands. 

The week-long event called "Greening Week" took place at the Agricultural College and Agricultural Secondary School Benešov. 

During the first days, the students learnt the theoretical principles of ecological restoration in the urban environment, and methods of the establishment of the species-rich meadows. They also worked on an assignment in which they mapped the urban grasslands in the city of Benešov and proposed methods for improvement of the species composition, and the creation of better connectivity across urban area for insect species. 

The next two days were led by the Restoration Ecology Working Group from the University of South Bohemia and were purely practical. Students firts tried out mapping of a donor site for collecting a regional seed mixture. They had an opportunity to collect seed mixture using a brush harvester, as well as collect individual species by hand. They looked closely at seeds in the brushed seed biomass using a binocular lenses and evaluated the success of restoration of a demonstration site established this spring. 

During a one-day excursion, they saw a large-scale restoration project of a landscape park partly using regional seed mixtures, the seed production fields where regional seeds are produced, and a green roof that was sown with species-rich regional seed biomass. We closed the excursion in the Bohemian Karst with a view of the largest limestone quarry in the Czech Republic. We believe that despite the very hot days, the students gained valuable information and experience from the program and we look forward to seeing them in the next school year. All the girls are eager to participate in the exchange excursion to Norway and will be working hard on their student projects from September.