Fonte Filipe, the water that brings us together a collective initiative to control invasive species by the WatHer Project
On 24 May 2026, the WatHer Project organised a hands-on collective action at Fonte Filipe, Querença (Loulé, Portugal), bringing together local landowners, volunteers and community members to help restore an important water heritage site through invasive species control.
The challenge was significant: to learn nature-based techniques for controlling one of the invasive species that poses one of the greatest threats to local water heritage and watercourses, the Giant Reed (Arundo Donax), as well as the invasive brambly shrub, the Blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius), which hampers agricultural activities.
With technical and scientific guidance from Pedro at Invasoras.pt, a group of 15 volunteers began the restoration of an initial section of the Fonte Filipe Levada in Querença, an area severely affected by the spread of giant reed and dense bramble growth.
Although the rapid expansion of the reedbeds and bramble since the area was first identified less than two months earlier was remarkable, the group, composed of landowners, volunteers, members of the local community, and the WatHer team from IN LOCO and UAlg, worked together to remove all visible reed growth, along with a substantial portion of the rhizomes and invasive vegetation.
A second intervention will be necessary to prevent regrowth and support the ecological restoration of these agricultural fields, served by the Fonte Filipe Levada, which forms part of the WatHer Pilot Project in Portugal.
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