Esterweger can

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Esterweger can

IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area

Esterweger jar..JPG
location South of Rhauderfehn , districts Emsland , Cloppenburg and Leer , Lower Saxony
surface 4746 ha
Identifier NSG WE 245
WDPA ID 344583
Geographical location 53 ° 3 '  N , 7 ° 38'  E Coordinates: 53 ° 2 '46 "  N , 7 ° 38' 5"  E
Esterweger Dose (Lower Saxony)
Esterweger can
Sea level from 4 m to 9 m
Setup date December 22, 2005
administration NLWKN
f2

The Esterweger Dose is a nature reserve in the Lower Saxony communities of Bockhorst and Esterwegen in the combined community of Nordhümmling in the district of Emsland , the community of Saterland in the district of Cloppenburg and the communities of Rhauderfehn and Ostrhauderfehn in the district of Leer .

In the nature reserve, peat extraction is permitted on large areas until 2036.

General

The under nature conservation standing bog area is the remnant of a once vast moor, which was divided into several sub-areas. The approximately 11,000  hectare area, which was the largest contiguous raised bog area in Central Europe, included the Esterweger Dose and the approximately 1,500 hectare Ostrhauderfehner Moor, the approximately 3,800 hectare Saterland Westermoor and the approximately 2,000 hectare Timpermoor.

The nature reserve with the NSG WE 245 label has been under nature protection since December 22, 2005. Responsible lower nature conservation authorities are the districts of Emsland, Cloppenburg and Leer. The nature reserve is 4747 hectares in size, making it the largest nature reserve in the former Weser-Ems administrative region . Of the area, 2080 ha are in the Emsland district, 1942 ha in the Cloppenburg district and 725 ha in the Leer district. The largest part of the nature reserve is part of the EU bird sanctuary of the same name , almost a third part of the FFH area of ​​the same name . The nature reserve is located south of Ostrhauderfehn and extends to the federal highway 401 on the coastal canal . The “ Melmmoor / Kuhdammoor ” nature reserve is located south of the coastal canal . It drains through ditches in the east to the Sagter Ems and in the west to Esterweger Beeke and Burlage-Langholter Tief.

In addition to the raised bog areas that can be renatured, the nature reserve also includes a. Bog forests , grass and pipe grass meadows , peat bog ditches , transitional and swinging lawns, moors and moist high herbaceous meadows .

history

The threatened removal of the bog in the Esterweger Dose in the 1920s through the large-scale cultivation of bog, which was carried out at the time , called for conservationists to take action for the first time. In 1927, two hydrological test fields with a size of 100 hectares each were set up in the Esterweger Dose. One test field was set up in the drainage area and one in the pristine bog to document the effects and differences.

In 1933 the Esterwegen concentration camp was established. The Esterwegen concentration camp was part of the Emsland camps , a total of 15 barrack camps . Up to 1945, around 10,000 concentration camp prisoners, 66,500 German and military prisoners, and more than 100,000 Soviet and French prisoners of war and Italian military internees were imprisoned in them. These prisoners were mainly used to drain bogs such as the Esterweger Dose. They became famous as bog soldiers.

Nonetheless, conservationists tried to put parts of the Esterweger can under nature protection. This was strictly rejected by the district president in Osnabrück and the Prussian or Reich Ministry of Agriculture. On October 12, 1935, the district president wrote: “Now we must finally put an end to the demands of these rare gentlemen from nature conservation.” Furthermore: “With the imperative to ensure the food supply for the German people, m. E. It is impossible to consider 12 golden plover couples. ”He further explained:“ In addition, there is an obligation towards the administration of the concentration camp [...] to employ the prisoners in a profitable way. ”The director of the Reich Agency for Nature Conservation , Walther Schoenichen , accepted anyway direct contact to Hermann Göring, who is responsible for nature conservation . Finally, on June 19, 1937, the hydrological test field with the pristine moor in the Esterweger can with 100 hectares was designated as a nature reserve. In 1941 Adolf Hitler ordered all cultivation work in German moors to be stopped, as large areas of the Soviet Union had just been conquered and the whole Soviet Union was expected to be conquered. Hitler also declared that "the climate, as well as forests, is also favorably influenced by the moors and that the complete elimination of the moors would have unforeseeable climatic consequences."

In 1950, the Bundestag passed the Emsland Plan with the aim of raising the region to the economic standard of the Federal Republic. This made large funds available for peatland cultivation. In 1951, Emslandplan GmbH, which was founded to implement the Emsland Plan, demanded the dismantling of the entire Esterweger can, including the nature reserve. The Working Group of the Commissioners for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management (ABN) therefore held its annual meeting in Oldenburg in 1951 . An excursion during the conference led to the nature reserve in the Esterweger Dose to promote the protection of the moors. The then district president in Osnabrück declared the designation of the Esterweger Dose nature reserve in 1937 was "emotional, how nonsensical". In order to prevent the destruction of the nature reserve, noted the director of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management , Gert Kragh , private 1958, a criminal complaint . Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf , Minister of the Interior in Lower Saxony, wrote to Kragh: "I believe that the Esterweger Dose also belongs to the category of losses that we inevitably have to accept despite all regrets." On January 29, 1959, the Esterweger Dose nature reserve was abolished .

In 1959, peat mining was approved in the entire Esterweger Dose. In 1975, the district of Cloppenburg and Emslandplan GmbH suggested that around 100 hectares of intact moor be re-designated as a nature reserve. The land as landowners and the peat industry refused and prevented expulsion. The cultivation of peatlands was promoted from 1976 by the law on the joint task "Improvement of the agricultural structure and coastal protection" (GAKG).

In 1981 the state government announced a moor protection program, which in particular regulated further peat extraction. Nature conservation has now demanded that a former raised bog area of ​​at least 5000 hectares be designated as a nature reserve. The last intact bog areas of the Esterweger Dose were peated from 1983. In 1994 the regional spatial planning program stipulated that the Esterweger Dose was a priority area for nature and the landscape. No other uses should take place after peat extraction is complete. At the beginning of the 1990s, the first rewetting had begun in the drained areas by closing the drainage ditches.

Large parts of the moor are still used today for peat extraction. However, a 50 cm thick layer of black peat must be preserved. After the end of the useful life, starting at the end of 2025, the then abandoned peat extraction areas will be renatured . At the end of 2030, two and a third peat loading station on the coastal canal will be given up at the end of 2036. In the south and north of the nature reserve, rewetting has already begun. Parts of the nature reserve are also used for forestry and agriculture.

Occurrence of rare animal and plant species

Drosera rotundifolia
The golden plover has its last remaining breeding area in Central Europe in the Esterweger can

The last breeding occurrence of the golden plover in Central Europe is found in the Esterweger Dose . These birds are also the last birds of the subspecies apricaria , also called the southern golden plover, which used to be widespread in moor areas in the north of Central Europe. In 2003 there were still twelve breeding pairs, by 2011 this population had decreased to seven breeding pairs. The few nests were monitored around the clock every year. Temperature sensors were used for monitoring and the immediate vicinity of the nests was secured with electric fences to keep predators such as the red fox away. The golden plover needs raised bogs with low vegetation as a habitat. However, all efforts were unsuccessful, in recent years there were no more breeding, so the protection program was discontinued.

Other rare species in the Esterweger can are redshank , curlew , black-tailed godwit , crane , large moss damsel and sundew .

tourism

Lookout point in the nature reserve

In the south of the nature reserve there is a moor educational trail and a lookout point for nature observation. In the north you can take the “Seelter Foonkieker”, a converted Lorenbahn , adventure trips into the Westermoor. A cycle route of around 100 km runs around the nature reserve and the neighboring villages.

Others

Transmitter masts of the marine radio station DHO38

1939 in the bog near the village Burlage the bog body of the child from the Esterweger box found , an approximately 14 year old boy who died from 1046 to 1164 there. The Burlage peat dog , one of the few known animal corpse finds in the moor, was also excavated near Burlage in 1953 .

In the north-west of the protected area there is a military security area with the long-wave transmitter DHO38 of the German Navy .

Environmental organizations feared effects on the nature reserve from emissions from a coal-fired power plant planned near Dörpen , which was to be built less than 15 km from the nature reserve. The project was abandoned at the end of 2009.

literature

  • Hans-Günther Bauer , Einhard Bezzel , Wolfgang Fiedler (eds.): The compendium of birds in Central Europe: Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 1: Nonpasseriformes - non-sparrow birds. Aula-Verlag Wiebelsheim, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89104-647-2 .
  • Hans-Werner Frohn: From “primeval nature” to ecosystem service provider - moor protection using the example of the Esterweger Dose from 1900 to 2005. Natur und Landschaft 2012, 87/1, pp. 24–29.
  • Helmut Lensing: The golden plover's long struggle for survival (Pluvialis apricaria apricaria) in the Emsland / Grafschaft Bentheim area , in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (Ed.), Emsländische Geschichte, Vol. 23, Haselünne 2016, pp. 58-97.
  • Karl-Josef Nick: The Esterweger Dose - mortgage and capital for the village at the same time , in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (Ed.), Emsländische Geschichte Vol. 24, Haselünne 2017, pp. 42-105.
  • Helmut Roggemann: The Esterweger Dose, a living raised bog in north-west Germany . Naturschutz , 1935, 16/4, pp. 78–80.

Web links

Commons : Esterweger Dose nature reserve  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Esterweger Dose , Lower Saxony History Atlas (accessed April 7, 2011).
  2. ↑ Hans-Werner Frohn: From “Urnatur” to the ecosystem service provider, Nature and Landscape 2012, 87/1, pp. 24–29.
  3. ↑ Hans-Günther Bauer, Einhard Bezzel, Wolfgang Fiedler: The compendium of birds of Central Europe. 2005. pp. 428-429.
  4. ↑ a b c The Esterweger Dose ( memento from March 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Deutsche Umwelthilfe .
  5. ↑ Seelter Foonkieker - Train rides through Westermoor (accessed on February 1, 2016).
  6. ↑ Moor Experience Route , Interest Group Moor Experience Route e. V. Accessed June 5, 2020.
  7. ↑ Moor experience route Esterweger Dose , Aktion Moorschutz, Biologische Station Osterholz e. V. Accessed June 5, 2020.