Barnbruch

	Barnbruch IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area
	The Allerkanal has been draining the Barnbruch since 1863
location	South-east of Gifhorn , in the urban area of Wolfsburg and in the district of Gifhorn in Lower Saxony
surface	1,200 ha
Identifier	NSG BR 075
WDPA ID	30106
Geographical location	52 ° 27 ' N , 10 ° 39' E Coordinates: 52 ° 27 '23 " N , 10 ° 39' 9" E
Sea level	from 53 m to 65 m
Setup date	07/16/1986
administration	NLWKN

The Barnbruch in the Aller - glacial valley is a wetland of international importance, which provides habitat for many endangered bird , amphibian and insect species. It lies between the cities of Wolfsburg and Gifhorn and consists of a closed forest area of around 1,500 hectares with surrounding meadows and pastures. Half of the lowland area is in the city of Wolfsburg and half in the Gifhorn district . The Barnbruch is next to the Drömling located around 15 km to the east, the ecologically most valuable lowland area in the upper reaches of the Aller.

location

The Barnbruch with the dimensions of about 4 × 7 kilometers is limited:

Sketch of the position of Barnbruch

To the west of the Elbe Lateral Canal and the artificially created Tankumsee (municipality of Isenbüttel )
In the north of the Aller and the places Osloß and Weyhausen
To the east of the industrial facilities of the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg
In the south of the county road K 114 (Nordtangente Wolfsburg-Gifhorn) and the place Calberlah

drainage

The Barnbruch was originally a swampy break forest . In 1830 that was the reason for the residents of the neighboring villages to complain to their king. They have not harvested hay for years and their farms have been ruined by years of flooding. With the state treaty between Prussia , Hanover and Braunschweig on the regulation of the Aller and the Ohre in 1860, the drainage work began. The Allerkanal dug 1860–63 between Wolfsburg and Gifhorn contributed in particular to the drainage . The drainage transformed the swampy landscape into a wetland with species-rich forest communities in which swamp and riparian forests with birch, oak, ash and alder occur. Today, large parts of the Barnbruch are nature reserves , in which some areas are left to develop naturally without human interference.

Location of the wetland

Forest stand

Until 1770 the swampy forest was undeveloped for forestry. Pine trees only grew on individual elevated areas (sand dunes of Ice Age origin). The high standing groundwater and the periodic floods formed the alder forest , which was largely closed to human use. In 1833, softwoods , especially alder , had a surface area of 82% in Barnbruch , while pine only 1%. In 1875, the forest had changed fundamentally as a result of the drainage. The alder only took up 42%, while pine and birch had a forest share of 51%.

literature

The Barnbruch in: Nature reserves in the Gifhorn-Wolfsburg area , Jürgen Schröder, 1986 Gifhorn

Web links

Commons : Barnbruch Nature Reserve - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Nature reserve "Barnbruch" in the database of the Lower Saxony State Office for Water Management, Coastal and Nature Conservation (NLWKN)