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Changing nature's course
By Zafrir Rinat
Tags: Israel News

For almost five years, Jerusalem environmental activist Shoshi Goldberg has been fighting to keep the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve from being dried up by adjacent Kibbutz Ein Gedi. She asked the Israel Parks and Nature Authority (INPA) to try to rehabilitate the reserve, and incessantly lobbied politicians and scientists, who simply denied that a problem exists. Every few weeks she would come to the oasis' spring to monitor the desiccation process.

Goldberg's message finally got through to officials at the INPA. A year ago, a new agreement was struck for the division of the water supply between the reserve and the kibbutz. For now, it seems like everyone is benefiting - the kibbutz gets the water it needs, and the reserve is gradually being restored.

Government authorities are struggling to soften the human impact on the environment in small, densely populated Israel. The formula they have adopted in recent years, amid the occasional pressure by environmental activists and scientists, generally follows a line of thinking that says, "If you can't prevent an area's destruction or desiccation, rehabilitate it."
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From Dan in the north to Eilat in the south, a variety of efforts are being made to do just that. Water is being diverted from the Tel Dan Reserve to the nearby Ayoun Stream, which dried up over the summer due to water use by farmers in southern Lebanon. In the quarries of Binyamina, plans are being made to restore natural flora to encourage the nesting of birds of prey. And that's just the beginning.

There is not a single guiding hand behind these restoration projects. Rather, the INPA is working with the Quarries Rehabilitation Fund (QRF), and the Environmental Protection Ministry is coordinating projects to rehabilitate streams.

Even the Jewish National Fund has its own pet project: Lake Hula, which was created to drain the swamps of the Galilee panhandle, but which has itself greatly benefited the ecosystem surrounding it. Some of the projects, such as the diversion of water to the Ayoun Stream, will cost several million shekels. The QRF's programs, by contrast, have cost several hundred million shekels, the majority of which was earmarked for ecological rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation efforts are often carried out in a trial-and-error manner. If they fail, they are liable to exact a heavy price. Such risk-taking led to the collapse of a project for releasing ostriches into the Arava two years ago - once released, the birds died or simply vanished. An experiment to restore wild flora to Givat Harakafot, east of Hadera, ended similarly: Shepherds were ordered to suspend their work there, but authorities later concluded that it was sheep-herding that would have limited the growth of plants that were competing with the reintroduced specimens.

In most cases, rehabilitation is intended to counteract past construction or development, but a number of recent construction projects have taken plant life into account in advance.

Planning ahead

In the case of the Trans-Israel Highway, authorities demanded, before the project began, that the blueprint detail the expected ecological damage. Planners were thus forced to take into account not only the aesthetic damage the road would cause, but also to take responsibility for rebuilding plant habitats anticipated to be destroyed by the construction.

Daniel Elmaliah, an adviser on flora for the Trans-Israel Highway Company, said that before paving a road, his company examines plant concentrations in order to minimize potential damage.

"Some of the plants were left in place, because we decided they would continue to grow. But thousands of plants like cyclamens, orchids and daffodils were moved to nurseries, and only later replanted in areas adjacent to the road. The project was very successful," he said. "Now we're holding further trials to restore plant life in the strip between the highway fence and the road itself, in order to create a contiguous passage for animals."

One of the central rehabilitation projects along the highway is at Ein Tut interchange, near Yokne'am. An artificial pool was created at the junction to take the place of natural ponds harmed by various construction projects of recent years.

The highway company also launched a project to help the rare Tomares nesimachus butterfly, considered the most beautiful in Israel. In danger of extinction, it uses the Astralagus plant in its mating ritual. After conferring with bodies like the IPNA three years ago, the Trans-Israel Highway Company planted Astralagus (also known as the milk-vetch) at Ein Tut. Six months later the rare butterflies were again seen hanging from its leaves, waiting for mates.

Environmental and scientific groups working to rehabilitate plant life along the highway said that despite the importance of their work, they cannot undo the ecological damage like that caused in Ramot Menashe in the Carmel range, where a new segment of the road was recently opened. They said a tunnel should have been dug to convey the road there, a measure that would have obviated the need for plant rehabilitation.

Private interests

Plant regeneration projects have also shed light on the conflicts that arise between public and private interests, which are particularly evident with respect to the Dead Sea.

Dropping water levels there have led to major changes in the waterways that flow into the sea, a process that threatened to undermine road construction on its western edge.

"Recently, a path being used to transport vehicles over the riverbed here collapsed," said David Meninger, founder of the Geo-Teva environmental consulting firm, as he walked along Tze'elim Stream south of the Dead Sea. "Because the water flow is not distributed in all directions as it was in the past, plant life in the area is drying out," he said, pointing to trees being desiccated near Tze'elim's ever-deepening riverbed.

The Dead Sea Works chemical company asked Geo-Teva to examine the stream's flow, after which a plan was drafted to build a wall for protection against floods. Next to the wall, large holes would be dug into the ground to collect water, which could then be channeled into the sea.

Sources at Dead Sea Works said the project does not meet only ecological goals: The company wants to comb the dirt removed from the water-collection pits for raw materials. Dead Sea Works - largely responsible for the sea's falling water level - will then be able to undo damage to the water, while being allowed to continue operating as usual. One of the scientists researching the water in the Dead Sea said that Dead Sea Works would still turn profits, even if it pays for the damage it caused to the sea.

Back at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, just north of Tze'elim Stream, Goldberg and Dr. Uzi Paz, a former top official at the IPNA, have been leading a long-standing battle against the desiccation of the reserve, caused by the diversion of water by the kibbutz to the mineral-water bottling plant it operates.

Eventually, at the recommendation of Technion professor emeritus Yoram Avnimelech, plans were implemented to enable the kibbutz to continue using a portion of the spring water, while the remainder was diverted to the riverbed, in an attempt to rehabilitate it. If the bottling plant wants to draw more spring water, it has to replace it with water from the nearby the Arugot Stream.

"This agreement was implemented gradually, and now is fully operational," Avnimelech said last week. "A nursery for local plants was set up, and flora was planted along the riverbank. Now there's water in Ein Gedi Stream, and nature is being rehabilitated."

"Things are undoubtedly better off now than when the struggle began," Goldberg added.

In many parts of Israel that have undergone ecological restoration, nature cannot be counted upon to pick up where it left off, particularly when it's a matter of water resources. Prime examples include the Iyon Stream Nature Reserve, near Metula, as well as the Yarkon River. There, restoration was made possible, among other things, by means of treated water.

Significant changes in water balance are unlikely in Israel, and the public and preservation authorities will likely have to continue providing water artificially to streams and springs.

"I hoped that it would be possible to reach the point where Ein Gedi receives water naturally, without man having to interfere, but that doesn't seem possible," Goldberg said. "In the future, we will have to make sure nature gets the amount of water it needs."
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