This project lays the groundwork for the potential future removal of barriers on the Koroška Kramarica, a volcanic-fed Alpine headwater that once teemed with life, with the potential to restore 10 kilometres of connectivity and the conditions for life to return.
Koroška Kramarica is a headwater stream of the upper Meža/Drava basin, rising within the Smrekovec volcanic massif in northern Slovenia. Smrekovec’s volcanic geology feeds an exceptional density of high-quality springs and streams, water that has long supplied valleys below and once supported thriving populations of brown trout, caught by hand within living memory of the communities here.
Following severe floods in the 1990s, concrete barriers were built along the Kramarica with lack of sediment flow assessment. All barriers are now completely silted up and have not performed proper flood protection function for decades, yet they continue to block fish passage, disrupt sediment transport, and degrade an otherwise high-quality Alpine headwater system.
Removal or ecological modification of all seven barriers would restore approximately 10 kilometres of continuous river habitat, reconnecting spawning and feeding grounds and reopening access to the highest-quality headwater reaches in the upper Meža/Drava basin.
| Project status | Live |
|---|---|
| Project type | Dam removal: pre-demolition |
| Country | Slovenia |
| River | Koroška Kramarica |
| Focal species | Brown trout |
| Organisation | The Mirn Grabn Initiative |
| Website | mirngrabn.org |
The Kramarica pass across Smrekovec mountain has long been more than a crossing point. For centuries it served as a trading route between Styria and Carinthia, worn into the landscape by merchants and travellers, accumulating legends still known locally today. The river bearing its name carries that history downstream.
Smrekovec is geologically rare: a submarine volcano some 25 million years old, whose impermeable bedrock captures an exceptional volume of water, feeding springs and streams long after rainfall. In a region exposed to increasing drought, this makes it a critical water security asset. Preserving its streams is a matter of both conservation and foresight, and of demonstrating, through the Kramarica Living Watershed Lab, that restoration is possible and replicable across comparable Alpine valleys.
The August 2023 floods, the worst in Slovenia’s history, with Črna na Koroškem as the epicentre, renewed urgent questions about how water is managed across mountain catchments, and why this work matters now.
The 12-month feasibility study will deliver: a hydromorphological and sediment assessment including sediment transport modelling, the first of its kind in these catchments; a biodiversity and fish habitat assessment; conceptual designs for removal or modification; stakeholder consultation with the municipality and water authorities; and a roadmap identifying priority barriers for removal.
The project is also a demonstration case: a citizen-led, community-rooted restoration model that could be replicated in other small Alpine catchments and could serve as a pilot area for nature-based solutions under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.
Kramarica as a Living Watershed Lab is less a formal structure than a way of working: documenting what the project team does, sharing what the project team learns, and keeping the process open to others facing the same questions in their own valleys. The goal is to show that this kind of restoration can begin with the people who know the river well.
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