The little owl lives on and around farmyards with orchards, hedges and wooded banks, and the measures are tailored to that. According to the Rolderpost, Rolde’s village paper, they include better orchards, new or restored hedges and wooded banks, and more greenery in the farmyard. The municipality says greener farmyards also give more shade and coolness, and rainwater soaks into the ground there more easily.
The project costs €30,000, half of which the municipality is paying in 2025 from the money for carrying out its climate policy. The other half comes from the province of Drenthe.
Residents will be given an explanation during a visit to their farmyard, at a talk and through information material. At earlier, similar projects run by the municipality, the meetings drew many residents.
In Aa en Hunze the little owl has been a symbol of the biodiversity of the small-scale farming landscape since 2018, and the municipality has been an ambassador for the owl ever since.