Elzéard Foundation

Leaving our little caravan

   Some backroads were inundated,
very bad to ride a bicycle through

Cycling from the Absthof to Rullen (near Sint-Pieters-Voeren) on the 16th of October was a hard break from the previous days. Being back on the saddle made me both excited for the future and sad again to leave my newfound 'home'. The first few kilometers were cycled in silence and a bit apart, because —realising this later— I needed some time to mourn about leaving the community. But soon the rolling landscape of the Haspengouw, the empty little roads and views on far away forested hilltops made me happy and attentive. This was not the case for Nicolaas. During our last day in the Abtshof, we carried a heavy marble sheet for one of the inhabitants. Nicolaas, who has had back problems for some time, really hurt his back, as we underestimated the weight of the stone. The ride for him was uncomfortable and he didn't share my happy mood. So after a while we decided to put our initial cycling node route into the thrash bin and just use Komoot for the shortest route to our destination. Komoot, for those who don't know, is a German navigation app that uses the detailed openstreetmap data in combination with some very good software to make an easy to read, smart and handy outdoor map system. It has a smart route programming function, that rarely just chooses the shortest road to some place, but always tries to find nice, beautiful, calm or specialised routes to maximize the outdoor experience. Programming it for the bicycle will make it choose more cycle lanes and less busy roads. I also use it constantly to record our routes that end up on the map above this blog.

First steep climbs near the Meuse valley

Anyways, we rerouted the route and used the GPS-voice (instantly named Komina) to guide us through the fine-mazed network of Limburg roads. We collected some walnuts at our teeth-brushing stop and bought a loaf of bread in the same area. Something Nicolaas and I often laugh about is the amount of peanut butter we keep on eating (and also bread, but that's more normal: we're Belgians). We put in on our bread morning and at lunch, and the quantities in our pots dwindle every time at worrying rates. It is very nutritive (lots of proteins) and tasteful, so I don't think somebody can blame us.

We also got into multiple discussions during our ride, one of which became a bit bitter and argumentative. This was not dramatic, nor had it a lasting impact, but we came to a point were Nicolaas did not enjoy the back-and-forth anymore. It tells something about our active stance on certain subjects and readiness to defend our opinions or even critique other ones. I really do appreciate discussing things with Nicolaas, because he really challenges me to think about things differently, without the option for me to say "oh, he just has a different opinion, so be it." At the same time studying history made me that horrible person who always wants to nuance things and pretend that because we live in a post-modern world, all objective knowledge doesn't exist. Sorry folks.

View on the Meuse valley, taken from the same viewpoint

Arrival in Rullen, accompanied
by some afternoon sun

At that point, when killing of the discussion, we reached the borders of the Meuse valley, which gave us a great view on Voeren and the hilltops around Liège. We knew now that the last stretch wouldn't be that far anymore, even though it also meant we would have to climb back out of valley, which would be tough for Nicolaas who was already quite tired. Of course the climb did turn out to be quite brutal, but we pushed through and arrived well at the Elzéard foundation, located in Rullen, near Sint-Pieters-Voeren.

A grassland that is soon to be partly rewilded,
 future corridor on the left side.

There we were hosted by a friend of Nicolaas, Roos, who works for the foundation. I also knew her from the course I had taken last year, were I met my long-haired travel companion. The foundation is an amazing, first of its kind project that focuses on a complete, holistic approach to nature conservation and restoration. Using the concept of green corridors it channels its funds to simply buy the lands that could connect bits of nature (often forested hilltops that are hard to use in agriculture). This results in huge positive impacts, as different fauna and flora are able to migrate, propagate and thus heighten the biodiversity and resilience of Voerens nature. The idea is also to connect two big national parks, that of the Hoge Venen (that is connected to the Eiffel in Germany) and the one of the Hoge Kempen, that can further extend into the Netherlands. It uses a lot of experimental techniques, like removing (phosphate) rich soil to create new poorer soil or thus create special bare stretches of land to encourage migration of some insect species. 

Johan showing us a permanent puddle,
 close to a prehistorical silex workshop,
 some silex rocks lying around
 still show traces of manufacture 

A future project that is very specific, but so interesting will for example be to artificially create slits in the ground that emulate cart tracks, to specifically encourage the propagation of one kind of toad, (the Yellow-bellied toad), who prefers temporary puddles to lay its eggs in. It historically migrated thanks to the economic bloom of the german Hanze cities who used a lot of carts to transport goods in the Medieval Period. Elzéard also firmly believes in creating big permanent puddles generally, a project that is monitored by the University of Leuven. Besides this Elzéard is also determined to use an all-in approach, trying to encompass all of the inhabitants and especially the farmers of the area to work with and within the corridor-system. They are encouraged or contracted to work in specially designed buffer zones, where regenerative and biological agriculture can be practised. I think especially this part is very important as so many times projects are trying to restore nature, without cooperating (and listening) enough with the people that actually live close by it or work in the same natural environment.

Visiting the tree nursery at arrival

Roos's job revolves around the corridors themselves, that will be completely rewilded and bereft from human activity, and is curating the tree nursery that will boost the plantation of forest. They use strict rules for selecting tree species and only collect seeds from trees that are actually growing (or used to be growing) in the area. The project by the way is mostly funded by the philanthropy of its founders, who are, or used to be some rich, but conscientious entrepreneurs. It has some specific goals that are pinned on a specific timeline, and the foundation is to be disbanded when they are met. Then all the funds and properties are to be spread across the actors that are implicated, system that is called a sink-in foundation. At the moment they are in full expansion and offer many mini-projects and opportunities for very different profiles. Currently for example they are looking for a chief of staff and also a PR-expert to create a new website and kickstart the public image via social media.

If I know that much about it, it is because for two days we were in the company of Johan, the foundations leader (if I am permitted to use that word), who kindly took a lot of time to explain all the different aspects of this project. He works very hard, negotiating and networking a lot with specifically the people that live in the area, to get everyone on the same line about the project. Genereally I was awed every time by the courage, determination, wisdom and sincerity employed by everyone at the foundation. Visiting this with Nicolaas was all the more interesting because his expertise made the discussions more detailed and critical. What an honour to have an inside view of this.

We on the contrary took a big part of our time to collect apples from the local orchard,  first to bring it to a big press that would return it as apple juice and secondly to have some nice fruit to conserve throughout the winter. We were permitted to sleep inside the house that is part of the farm where the tree nursery is, so our comfort levels as opposed to bivouacking, were quite high. We luckily had time to read a little bit, but in our free time we talked a lot with Johan. On Friday he took us for a walk around the close-by acquired lands, where he showed all these ideas we talked about in practise. It was really an eye-opener. By Saturday (19th october), we left again, full of ideas and inspired. The plan now is more cycling and less stopping (probably because we know so many people and places in Belgium), which means that our next project could be weeks from here. Our road will lead us through Liege (already passed, but covered in a later post), visiting my godmother in the Ardennes and then finally leaving our little kingdom to the glorious republic of France. We are planning to head to the capital to visit some squats, where we hope to meet interesting people and learn from the hopefully present workshops. I'll try to update the map every day so interested people can watch our progress! Cheers and thanks for reading!

Rightmost photo showing a part of the "insect highway", consisting of the removal of nutrient rich soil.