The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, inaugurated today in Segovia, together with the Director General of the Natural Environment of the Junta de Castilla y León, José Ángel Arranz, and the Mayor of Cantalejo, José Antonio Sanz, the restoration works of the Cantalejo lagoons.

This project has served to regulate the flow of water between the different lagoons of the complex, improve the habitat and its management, through the management of public recreational use.

Despite being included in the Catalogue of Wetlands of Castilla y León and being a SPA, SCI and critical area of the black stork, the lagoon complex was subject to pressures that threatened its conservation, which is why restoration work was necessary, which has been financed by the Biodiversity Foundation and the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León. dependent on the Ministry of the Environment of said autonomous community.

The Cantalejo lagoons are a set of wetlands located on sandy terrain and surrounded by pastures of temporary waterlogging and pine forests and, to a lesser extent, also by poorly developed holm oak and scrub forests. Their natural dynamics depend on water from precipitation and runoff, so they flood when the groundwater table reaches the surface, and dry up during the summer, when evaporation becomes very intense.

Before the start of the works, several factors threatened its conservation, such as the proximity of roads that prevented the nesting of some species of birds; their use as landfills for urban waste or debris; its eutrophication by slurry dumping; its drying for crops or pastures by drainage, channelling or channelling; the existence of silting processes, both natural due to the accumulation of peat or sand, and originated by man to use the land for cultivation or the extraction of water for irrigation.

Specifically, actions have been undertaken aimed at improving the wetlands through the restoration of the drainage network, the installation of gauging meters and the regulation of the flow between lagoons through gates, spillways and gauges, as well as improving the habitat by removing old fences existing in the area and planting vegetation at certain points of the lagoon complex.

In total, 23 actions have been carried out in 7 of the 14 lagoons that make up the lagoon complex, specifically in Sotillo Bajero, Navacornales, Navalayegua, Navalagrulla, La Cerrada, Navahornos and La Muña. These measures will be beneficial for numerous species of nesting and migratory birds such as the black stork and the common stork, as well as for birds of prey and forest birds linked to the pine forests of the area, among which the imperial eagle stands out, and the aquatic birds that inhabit the wetlands.