Wetlands Lost and Found in the Levant - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 62

FIGURE 6.11 Observation tower and bird-viewing blind.

variable topography and planting (Shy et al. 1998; Ashkenazi and Dimentman 1998;
Figure 6.14).
There was an amazing and very rapid return of visual and some ecological attri-
butes as recently as two weeks following reflooding, leading to a very vibrant eco-
system. Over seventy plant species had colonized during the first two years (Kaplan,
Oron, and Gophen 1998). The “build it and they will come” strategy paid off with the
colonization of pelicans, herons, egrets, cranes, cormorants, ducks, and flamingos to
such a degree that the area came to be regarded as “a new paradise for bird watching”
(Ashkenazi and Dimentman 1998). In the case of cranes, numbers increased from
levels of less than five thousand observed prior to restoration to levels exceeding