Protected species

The grass frog does not seem to want to behave. Every time Kathrin Mielsch grabs for it, the green critter hops away. "The frogs like to jump on the street," she says, and catches it - this time securely. The specimen, a particularly large male, gets put in her white collecting bucket.

"They like to be on the warm asphalt. Without our protective fence, we would have hundreds of run-over frogs, toads and newts every day."

In search of untouched nature

Kathrin Mielsch and her co-workers from the Nature Conservancy in the "Hohe Flaeming" Reserve have set up around seven kilometers (four miles) of tightly woven green protective fencing. Every day, she and her co-workers walk the fence, together with unpaid volunteers, to collect the amphibians and return them to ponds far away from the street. The aim here is for people and nature to live in harmony.

The Hohe Flaeming nature reserve is one of 15 so-called greater protected areas in Brandenburg. "Brandenburg is sparsely populated," Mielsch explains. "That's why there are a lot of very pristine, untamed landscapes. People come to Brandenburg to experience untouched nature."

Kathrin Mielsch has been a conservationist for nearly two decades, and she offers protection to more species than just the grass frog. In her beige ranger's shirt and green jacket, she crisscrosses Brandenburg's forests and its lightly undulating fields, counting rare species and talking to the region's farmers about how to avoid using harmful pesticides.

"I used to work in agriculture, in a cooperatively-owned farm" (under East German Communism), said Mielsch. She lays another frog in the bucket.

"In the days of the GDR, we propagated seeds for the big agricultural concerns. Nothing much grows here on this sandy soil, and so the fields were enormous. But when the Wall came down, that was the end of socially-planned agriculture."

Saving the Great Bustard

Miesch was out of a job, and like a lot of her friends, she got by on public assistance. In 1993, she got her nature preserve job. "It was like winning the lottery," said Miesch, who loves working outdoors.

She is a born-and-bred Brandenburger, from the area that is known for its attachment to so-called Prussian values like discipline, hard work and responsibility. But she rejects the notion that those values are of paramount importance. "Of course I try to do my job as responsibly as I can, but not with so-called Prussian values. I do it with passion."

Her passion extends to animals like the Great Bustard, a very timid bird that looks like a tiny ostrich and, at 18 kilos (40 lbs) is one of the heaviest flying creatures in the world. The species is seriously endangered in Germany, and she is keeping an eye on some 20 of the birds through her binoculars.

The males are eagerly mating. They stretch their white under-feathers in the air, trying to impress the females. The sight makes Kathrin Mielsch happy. It means soon, Brandenburg could have a few more Great Bustards.