My name is Hans van Berlo, born in Gemert and after some wanderings I ended up in De Mortel, a parish of Gemert. I am 63 years old and I work as a volunteer at the IVN Gemert Bakel. There I run the amphibians and fish workgroup and I am a school guide in the spring and autumn. I also keep 20 barn owls in the municipality and I am on the board of IVN Gemert Bakel. I like to be in nature, where I almost always am because we live in the middle of it. I also like old Volvo's, which I often work on. I also invest a lot of time in the groundwater here on the high sandy soils, because I think that big steps must be taken here to get it up.
My coolest experience at the IVN: That is The Preserved Land, wonderful that there is such a thing and it is a pity that such a thing is not mandatory nationally. In my opinion this is the best way to introduce children to nature in a playful way. Because you spend three whole days with them, a lot lingers. This gives them a click with nature or not, of course, that is also possible. This is much better than the nature education we give them in primary school because that is usually only 2.5 hours in nature. Yes really a great experience for me as well as for the children. What do you really want to do: If there is something I would still like to do and therefore also want to participate in it, it must be the wetness of the peel. Because the groundwater keeps sinking every year, more and more pools and ditches are falling dry. As a result, more and more flora and fauna is disappearing in this area. I mean everything that used to be wet, and that is from the village of Zeeland to the big peel near Deurne. This used to be a wild and wet area that was full of large pools. Now there is only the large peel that is artificially maintained with Maas water. Because our own water has long ceased to flow through ditches with all its consequences. If the water that falls here could stay, it would look very different here on the high sandy soils in 100 years. I really hope that I can contribute to this.
