Hula Agamon

(Friday, June 25)
Once upon a time, a valley in the Golan Heights (northern Israel) was a huge swampland. But in the early days of the state, agriculture was the goal. So the swamp was drained and the valley turned into farmland. Decades later, people realized that the swamp might have served some important purposes. It was the resting place for millions of birds migrating (Israel is the land connection between three continents, surrounded mostly by seas and deserts). The wetland plants cleaned water flowing from the Jordan River before it reached the Sea of Galilee. Realizing this, many Israelis sought the reconstruction of the swamp. So an area was created and reflooded. The Hula Agamon Park now serves as a site for ecotourism. A banding station bands birds for tracking. Our group got to speak with the banders, and Eric and Persephone both got to release a bird after it was banded and recorded. We visited several observatories and saw lots of pretty birds and cute mammals. A botanical garden is seeking to reintroduce plants native to the swampland that are now nearly extinct in Israel. We did some weeding (to make the desired plants grow more easily) and planted some stuff in the garden (including some plants that needed to be placed in the water itself, so some folks went wading through muck). The guides seemed very happy we were there, and it was fun to get our hands dirty doing something other than hiking.