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National Geographic : 2002 Mar
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out rock piles that the park is spacing out on either side of the river in a staggered pattern designed to force the water to assume a more natural winding course, a result that will take up to two decades to achieve. The river that day was broad and serene, col ored dark green in the shade of half-drowned trees. "This environment is good for birds that need lots of water," Fels6 said. Indeed, the 122,000-acre park harbors an abundance of bird species. "We've got eagles, falcons, herons, and 40 pairs of black storks. This park may be their last chance." South of Duna-Drava scars of war began to appear, reminders of the conflict ten years earlier between Croatia and Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, which here face one another across the Danube. In Bilje bullet holes pockmark the headquarters of Kopacki Rit Nature Park. From there biologist Tibor Mikuska drove me to a levee whose thick grass conceals countless mines left from the war. Mikuska pointed to a path worn through the grass that led down along a safe section of levee to a concrete bulkhead. Such trails are left by anglers, and many of them were out that fine day, casting lines into waters teeming with fry. Commercial fishing was outlawed here in the 1970s, and Mikuska wants to restrict sport fishing to the park's least environ mentally sensitive areas. "The park should be open to the public, but people can no longer just go in and do what they want," Mikuska said. Shooting waterfowl is now outlawed, and park staff hope to limit big-game hunting. They are also training locals as nature-tour guides and encouraging them to open their homes as bed-and-breakfasts. "We want to make people proud of this area." Kopacki Rit and other Danube preserves A playground for swimming and boating,
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