A difficult year for our natural oasis
2023 has proven to be a difficult year so far for our Greenfinity Natural Oasis as a result of extreme weather conditions. Styria has already been hit by severe storms several times this year, two of which resulted in major damage to the site.
Heavy rainfall already led to flooding in May, which devastated part of the pond complex. At that time, the nearby Sulm River reached a level of 270m³/s. For comparison, the river normally has a water level of 8m³/s.
This extremely high level was far exceeded by the recent storms at the beginning of August. On August 4, about 125 liters of precipitation fell within 20 hours, and the Sulm River reached a historic level of 440m³/s. This caused several dams to overflow and led to severe devastation.
The river, which usually runs by the tree line in the back, overflowed far into the fields.
The exit to our natural oasis is on the left side. It was not accessible for more than a week.
The complex was inaccessible for more than a week and could only be inspected at a late stage as a result. A dredging operation will be necessary to restore the damaged dams and we also assume that fish were dragged by the currents towards the Sulm. These extreme situations will also have an impact on the regrowth, which will not be able to proceed as planned this year.
Besides the immediate damage to the pond, it will also take some time to repair the remaining damage to the complex.
We need support so that we can carry out the renovation work as soon as possible. If you would like to help, you can do so here.
