Extensive land use in Central Europe
As extensive land use refers to the use of soils with low engagement of economic man in the ecosystem and leaving the vegetative location factors; natural development predominates . The term is relative and to be seen in the respective temporal and geographical context. The term always refers to a comparison with today's usual forms of use. A grassland use that is now referred to as extensive may have been a common form of use on comparable areas around 200 years ago; in the context of its time it would then be called intensive rather than extensive. Furthermore , land use described as extensive in Central Europe can represent the usual intensive use in other countries.
The definition of extensive land use
The geologist and geographer Johannes Müller has developed three criteria for defining extensively used parts of the landscape. These do not stand alone, but build on each other:
- Extensive land use only refers to areas that have arisen through agricultural activity.
- An extensively used part of the landscape is a spatially limited element within a cultural landscape . For their development, relative to the intensively used environment, only less intensive or complex land use is necessary. However, the lack of any use calls into question the existence of this part of the landscape
- From an agro- ecological point of view, these areas represent special locations that are characterized both by special landscape-ecological conditions and by anthropogenic influences. The latter have decisively shaped this area and can continue to contribute to a change of location.
Heathlands as the Lüneburg Heath and the meadows of the Alps , for example, due to human management. Pasture and field management, which shaped the heather landscape type , displaced the oak and beech forest communities originally located there . The pastures were in favor of the fields by Plagge bat humus withdrawn and nutrients. This led to a degradation of the soil , which no longer allows intensive use. However, if today's extensive use - above all grazing with sheep - were to cease, this landscape would be covered with bushes again. In general, between intensive land use and natural climax vegetation, there are very diverse areas in which humans only intervene extensively. These interventions take place with different frequency depending on the landscape element and are sometimes even carried out selectively from plant to plant, such as when pruning fruit trees in orchards or planting a hedge.
This definition does not include landscape elements that have arisen through other human interventions, such as traffic route construction or commercial use such as the removal of gravel.
Features of extensive landscape use
In Central Europe, extensive agricultural use can generally be recognized by the following characteristics:
- The cultivated areas are generally smaller than the intensively cultivated areas. Often these areas remained unaffected by land consolidation measures, so that they still have old land shapes . With regard to their area, they are therefore particularly often characterized by long border lines and / or irregular shapes. Compared to the general level of development in agriculture, one speaks of a low level of organization.
- The labor input on these areas is lower compared to those in the surrounding area. Interventions are carried out on a smaller scale and more irregularly. If the area is grazed , the livestock population is low. Meadows are often mowed only once.
- There are no cultural interventions to increase the value of the soil, such as irrigation or drainage , drainage , embankment of floodplain areas , river straightening or terrain leveling. Due to the lack of these interventions, also known as melioration measures , fundamental changes of location are not possible.
- Typical capital-intensive means of production such as the use of fertilizers or pesticides or large agricultural machines are either not used at all or only to a small extent.
In contrast to orchards, orchards represent the less intensive form of fruit cultivation . In order to enable the most uniform management possible, orchards are mostly monoculture and planted with low trunks. These are in rows just far enough apart that the field can still be driven on with agricultural machines. Orchard meadows, on the other hand, are predominantly found today on areas that would otherwise only be managed with a high level of labor and capital. In contrast to orchards, they do not have any irrigation and usually do not use fertilizers and pesticides on large areas. Since several types of fruit and regularly different types of fruit are often grown, maintenance interventions cannot be carried out on a large scale. In contrast to orchards, even if insecticides and herbicides are not used there, orchards are much richer in species.
Influence of agricultural subsidies
Extensification means less production of products to be marketed with mostly constant use of the soil factor. This is often associated with a reduction in the use of capital and operating resources while at the same time increasing the use of working hours. The latter can be prevented by giving up particularly labor-intensive branches of business ( e.g. suckler cow husbandry instead of milk production ). In a narrower sense, the reduction in working hours is not part of the extensification first promoted by the EU in 1989 through an extensification program. This program was intended to reduce the production surpluses at that time for many products (see for example Butterberg ), which at that time could only be sold on the world market with export refunds, and at the same time to promote "more environmentally friendly" production. At that time, a reduced use of pesticides and mineral fertilizers was promoted . The conversion to organic farming , which is also funded, is the most extensive form of extensification. The set-aside of land, which was compulsory for many farms until 2009, was not a form of extensification, but an agricultural policy instrument for market control.
As part of the common agricultural policy within the EU, environmentally friendly management is still being promoted today (as of 2013). Classic extensification programs are of less importance within the offered subsidies, however, since the goal of market control in favor of free world trade of all agricultural products was abandoned within the framework of the GATT negotiations.
Various funding programs in German federal states, for example for the protection of orchards or wet meadows or for the creation of wild fields or field margins, also have the effect of extensifying at least parts of a farm.
Function of extensively used landscape elements in the cultural landscape
Extensive land use is primarily used to preserve endangered species. But their function goes beyond that. Extensively used areas form buffers and compensatory elements in a landscape in order to partially absorb or mitigate the effects of intensive use on neighboring areas.
Extensively used landscape elements can, for example, reduce soil erosion , influence the water absorption capacity of a soil, positively change the microclimate , regulate water level fluctuations or assume a water protection function. Extensively used landscape elements such as orchards can also have an element that shapes the landscape and can therefore be preserved for aesthetic reasons.
Development of extensive land use
Today, extensive land use is usually associated with contractual nature conservation or the deliberate reduction in the intensity of cultivation from an ecological point of view. However, locations that have become increasingly uninteresting for commercial agriculture are always used extensively.
Historically, too, extensive land uses emerged on marginal yield sites that were too steep, too moist, too dry or too rocky for intensive cultivation. Such special agro-ecological locations were always managed, depending on the economic framework, if the associated expenditure could be measured against the yield. Slopes too steep for arable farming, for example, could still be grazed by sheep or goats . However, their use was always less intensive than that of the main production areas.
There is a close connection between extensive land use and historical landforms , even if rural areas in Central Europe are shaped by historically and regionally very different developments. From the edge of the Alps to the coast, a mosaic of different ground forms was created. The respective degree of grazing had a major influence on the proportion of extensive use.
The role of fertilizer
A lack of fertilizer was the limiting factor in agriculture before Justus von Liebig invented artificial fertilizer in the 19th century . The types of solutions that have been developed in agriculture to solve this problem are partly dependent on the respective field shape. However, they regularly led to extensive land use, as individual parcels were deprived of nutrients to such an extent that intensive agricultural use is no longer possible today. Heathland and grassland are examples of such areas.
In general, before the development of artificial fertilizers, the available cattle manure was insufficient to fertilize all the plots sufficiently. Although they also practiced green manure , fallow year and crop rotation , but that the nutrient removal could not be offset. In many fields that went along with grazing, the grazed areas were deprived of fertilizer in favor of the areas on which arable farming was carried out. This happened, for example, by penning the grazing cattle in the fields mostly overnight . The importance of fertilizer is also evidenced by the sometimes complicated municipal ordinances, which stipulated how often, for example, community herds were crammed into certain fields. For Gewannflure (see below), for example, the Hutzwang was binding; Animals kept could not be looked after individually, but had to be kept in the community herd. How many animals an individual was allowed to bring into the community herd was also precisely regulated. After the winter grain had been harvested, the stubble fields usually had to remain standing until August in order to be grazed by the community herd.
Corridor shapes
Basin corridors
Basin corridors usually showed very little extensive land use, because this was the typical corridor shape for loess soils with a balanced relief. Since the land was therefore extremely attractive for arable farming, every possible area was plowed in order to grow grain. Garbage corridors, which were typical for the Upper Rhine Graben , the Magdeburg Börde and the Neckarland , were therefore largely "cleared" landscapes.
Typical for Gewannfluren was a three-field economy in which winter crops such as rye and wheat were grown in the first year, spelled , oats , spring wheat or barley in the following year and then the field was left fallow for a year. Due to the small size of the individual parcels, of which not even each had its own access routes, cultivation was cell-bound . On each Zelge, a unit of several plots, all owners not only had to grow the same fruit, but also had to adhere to common sowing and harvesting times.
Cattle were only kept as draft animals and fertilizer suppliers. Meat production played a very minor role. Commons that were used as communal pastures were correspondingly rare . On the other hand, the fallow land, the few cattle and non-arable land and the stubble fields were grazed in a complicated cycle . With the introduction of the improved three-field management, in which the fallow year was omitted and instead clover , sainfoin and alfalfa were sown as nitrogen-fixing green manure, people increasingly began to move towards pure stable keeping. On the small areas that were not included in arable farming, the grazing pressure eased. These areas were now available for cultivation of orchards, or field trees, bushes and hedges gradually emerged there.
Ash corridors
Eschfluren, on the other hand, are typical for regions in which part of the district had special agro-ecological locations. Only the Esch was suitable for arable farming, the non-plowed part of the district was usually moist with groundwater and therefore not suitable for growing grain. Often single-field farming was carried out on the Esch , with only rye being grown for years . Typical of Esch hallways were common lands , which were used by the village community together as a grazing ground. As a public good , the common land was neglected regularly. In some cases, the humus and nutrient-rich topsoil was removed from the common land by pest , in order to supply the arable land with nutrients. This approach, which inspired economics to develop the theorem of the tragedy of the commons , led to impoverished pastureland, on which heather eventually became a population. Ultimately, the pastures only offered sufficient food for herds of sheep and goats .
The fields were protected from game bites and from being represented by grazing cattle with hedges . Ash corridors, which are typical for the Münsterland and large parts of north-west Germany , therefore have a broad spectrum of landscape elements with very different degrees of use. In addition to hedges and heaths, these are ditches, wet areas and riparian wood.
Block corridors
Large block corridors are typical for land-cleared areas today. Until the middle of the twentieth century, this type of corridor was to be found throughout Central Europe, but was limited to large manors. More typical were small block corridors, which in Germany, which is dominated by small and medium-sized farmers, were the most common corridor shape after the corridor. Characteristic for these districts was a restless ground relief, so that the areas used for arable farming were repeatedly interrupted by special agro-ecological locations. Small-scale remaining areas that were used less intensively as marginal yield areas could be rocky areas of terrain, steep slopes or ponds. Due to the relatively low population density in these regions, the pressure to use the individual parcels was also lower, so that landscapes with a very irregular location pattern emerged.
Similar to the Gewannen, a three-field economy was mainly practiced here, but this was usually not bound to a cell.
Hoofflats
In contrast to block, tub and ash corridors, hoof corridors emerged relatively late. Moorhufen came into being when the large moors in north-west Germany began to be drained. Marsh hoof corridors emerged when the marshy river deposits were drained. Hufenflure also emerged when the low mountain ranges such as Spessart , Rhön , Odenwald , Franconian Forest , Black Forest and Bavarian Forest were opened up for agriculture.
The first hoof corridors emerged in the High and Late Middle Ages and are all characterized by their planned layout. Farmsteads were built along streams and around a spring basin, the associated plots were laid out on the basis of this and mostly ended on the upper slope by the forest ( Waldhufendorf ). In this way, clearing islands were created in the middle of the forest. Due to the subsistence economy at that time , a large part of the respective parcels was used for arable farming, even if these locations did not offer ideal conditions for this. That is why grassland management and livestock farming have always been part of this type of land.
The intensity of use generally decreased with the distance from the courtyard. In the case of hooves in moorland and marshland, the drainage ditches shaped the landscape. Low shrubs often grew along them under the protection of fences. In addition, were willows planted. Extensively used wet perennial corridors are also among the landscape-defining elements of this corridor form.
For the hooves of the low mountain range, the piles of harvest stones are typical, which were piled up along the plot boundaries. Hedges often emerged on them, which were valued as delimiting the pastures. Although the low mountain ranges in particular were developed at a time when there was hardly any easily accessible or cultivated land available, the pressure of use on the hooves was so low overall that large rains were often created along the plots.
The change in shape of the rural cultural landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries
The rural area of Central Europe, with its traditional and diverse forms of cultural landscape, was subject to only very gradual changes until the beginning of the 19th century. This changed with the serious economic, social and administrative change in functions. Traditional forms of agriculture have changed fundamentally since the end of the Second World War . In this change, however, there were considerable regional and local differences; Peripheral and structurally weak areas have been able to preserve the traditional forms for longer than high-yield agricultural landscapes close to large cities.
The intensification of agricultural use in the 19th century
The individual corridor forms, where differences in the intensity of use were typical, changed only very gradually until the 19th century. Many landscape elements that arose from the then - partly already extensive - use still exist today.
A profound change in agricultural structures began at the beginning of the 19th century, when agriculture changed from a previously subsistence-oriented one to a market-oriented one. This went hand in hand with better transport options, increasing mechanization, increased cultivation of new crops - including the expansion of potato and maize cultivation - and, in some cases, regional specialization. For example, the proportion of arable farming in the climatically disadvantaged regions of the low mountain range fell. Changed consumer habits, stronger competition from abroad, an unsatisfactory earnings situation and ultimately the phylloxera infestation also led to a significant decline in the area under vines. The change in land use occasionally shows up as relic forms in the landscapes. For example, step borders in areas now used as pastures indicate former arable farming, and dry stone walls can still be found on the vineyards .
The intensification of agriculture also went hand in hand with a change in the legal structure. The first rounding law of November 10, 1861, which was supposed to abolish the splitting up of parcels, especially of the corridors, was unsuccessful. The Land Consolidation Act of May 29, 1886 therefore also provided for compulsory measures and led to a gradual reorganization of the corridors, which, however, dragged on for several decades. As part of the reorganization of the corridors, the common areas, which were usually grazed extensively, were given up and given over to private property.
The more intensive agriculture of the 19th century brought about new land use elements that were intensive from the point of view of the time, but are extensive from the point of view of today. Above all, tall fruit trees were planted in many regions in the 19th century and new forms of meadow irrigation created using ditch systems.
Change processes in the 20th century
The rural cultural landscape underwent a number of profound changes in the 20th century. So there were two phases in which numerous villages and hamlets were newly founded. In both the 1920s and 1930s and the late 1940s and 1950s, new agricultural settlements were created in connection with government land reforms. Since the settlements in rural areas had increasingly been transformed into residential areas since the 1930s, agricultural farms were relocated to the field as so-called repatriate farms in western Germany in the 1950s and 1960s . At the same time, the increasing mechanization and motorization of agricultural production led to a strong reshaping of traditional land forms. The guiding principle of Central European agricultural policy is the family farm, but today's agriculture is characterized by increasing specialization and mechanization, so that it increasingly resembles North American farming .
Forms of land use that is now regarded as extensive
Remote grazing in the Alps
The Serviced and the transhumance of the Alps are prototypical extensive cultivations. These economic forms at the transition from nomadism and sedentarism (seasonal grazing) have produced the alpine pasture as a type of landscape that characterizes the mountain areas of the Alps today. Similar landforms can be found in all mountain regions in Central Europe.
Orchards
- → Main article: Orchard meadow
Orchards at times shaped entire landscapes; however, it is a form of land use that is only a few centuries old.
In 1663, the dukes of Württemberg ordered the planting of fruit trees along country roads to ensure better supplies for the rural population. However, there was strong state subsidy only in the late 18th century, and fruit trees were often planted on the common land at that time because it did not interfere with grazing. Until the middle of the 19th century, the fruit grown in this way was used almost exclusively for self-sufficiency (storage, drying, musting). Apart from the common land planted with fruit trees, orchards were mostly grown in the gardens near the village. These areas also served as a run for the poultry or as a pig and sheep pasture.
The orchard meadows expanded when, with the improved transport options, fruit became marketable in the second half of the 19th century. In climatically suitable regions that at the same time had sufficiently good connections to sales markets, the areas planted with tall fruit trees increased significantly. The main fruit growing regions around 1900 were the Württemberg Neckarland, which had a population of 1560 fruit trees per square kilometer used for agriculture. In Lower Franconia and Baden , Thuringia and Anhalt , the fruit tree population was around 1000 trees per square kilometer. Schleswig-Holstein , Mecklenburg and Pomerania, on the other hand, only had between 160 and 188 fruit trees per square kilometer, which was partly due to the climatic conditions in these regions and the lower pressure of use there.
The orchard meadow has only been classified as an extensive form of land use since the second half of the 20th century. The production of fruit on single-variety plantations became significantly more profitable, which is why the EEC even paid premiums for clearing old fruit trees between 1957 and 1974 .
Orchard meadows are considered worth preserving because of their landscape-defining character and also play a major role in the preservation of endangered species such as the little owl and the great gray shrike .
Trenches
Ditches - originally created for the irrigation of plots, to operate a water mill or for drainage - are also characteristics of an earlier intensive land use, but today the intensity of use is extensive in relation to the usual land use and which are considered worth preserving due to their biodiversity.
Irrigation ditches were created between the Middle Ages and the early 20th century. They were even used in the rainy low mountain range, as they were able to bridge the summer months with little rain and increase the yield of the plots. Spring water was led in ditches, which could be kilometers long, along the edges of the valley with a slight gradient, in order to irrigate the meadows from there. On these so-called water meadows , sprinkling in late winter ensured that the snow melted faster. Watering the plots in autumn reduced the pest pressure, since the watering could kill insect larvae and mice . In the pre-industrial era, however, one of the most important functions of irrigation was bringing nutrients to the meadows. Water called "thick" water because of the sewage and feces it contained was preferred to clear water. A peasant rule from pre-industrial times was therefore:
- The farmer on the right knows
- That one should water in November.
- Because in November watering
- Is the meadow's recovery
Since water power was the most important source of energy in the pre-industrial times, countless trenches were dug to operate mills. Hammer mills , oil , saw and paper mills as well as grain mills were operated with water power. In particular, there were flour mills in almost every district. The importance of the trenches in the pre-industrial era can be seen in the various attempts at regulation, some of which are very old. One of the first is a council decision in the Freiburg im Breisgau area from 1382. Disputes over water abstraction rights even led to a state treaty between the city of Basel and the margraviate of Baden in 1756 .
In today's agriculture, meadows only play a subordinate role due to changes in the way cattle are fed and stalls. Since there was also plenty of (artificial) fertilizer available, general drainage of the meadows became more important than temporary irrigation. Most of the ditch systems for meadow irrigation have now silted up and can only be recognized in meadows by the different species composition due to the changed soil composition. Larger trenches, which once served as mill ditches or for drainage, have been preserved especially when they run along parcels of land. They have mostly developed into still waters and offer space for aquatic plants , moisture-loving perennials such as meadowsweet , reeds and riparian trees. Interventions are usually limited to an occasional mowing.
Pond management
Similar to meadow orchards, ponds have experienced a strong shift in terms of their intensity of use. After Christianization, fish played a major role in nutrition because of the many days of fasting . In particular , extensive ponds were created around monasteries . Fish farming was so important that even grassland and arable land were converted into ponds in the 16th century.
Ponds were used differently in the Middle Ages and modern times . The characteristics of intensive use were the annual draining of the water - usually combined with fishing - and feeding the fish. Any reed beds and large sedge beds that may have developed were also often mowed for litter use. For productive fish farming, the aquatic and marsh plants also had to be removed, as they deprived the water of nutrients and sometimes also of oxygen.
An intensive form of pond farming was field-pond farming . A parcel that had been used as a pond for several years was drained and then used for arable farming, usually for a year or two. Both the yields achieved through arable farming and the suppression of fish parasites , pathogens causing fish diseases and aquatic plants only played a subordinate role. The focus of these measures was on increasing fish yields through fertilization with the dead plant parts and through cultivated legumes .
Due to changes in consumption habits and the decline in monasteries, particularly due to secularization , a large number of ponds were drained again in the 18th and 19th centuries and mostly converted into grassland. Where ponds are no longer maintained, siltation usually sets in. For this reason, at least extensive land use is usually necessary to maintain ponds.
Heathens
The only natural type of heather that occurs in Central Europe is the coastal heather consisting of crowberries , which is limited to a few small areas of the North Sea coastal dunes. Both the rarer broom heather , which still occurs in the Rhenish Slate Mountains , in the Eifel and in the Sauerland , and the Calluna heather, which is dominated by heather , are the result of anthropogenic interventions. The term heather has experienced a change in meaning. Until the 19th century it was used for all low-yield and tree-poor pastures. Today it is understood to mean a small shrub society in regions with high precipitation, acidic soil conditions and extensive sheep grazing in forest locations with a mostly oceanic climate. The juniper heather , on the other hand, is one of the types of grassland.
Both the broom heather and the Calluna heather, such as you can find near Lüneburg , for example , were created through the erosion of the soil. At the Besenginsterheide there is also a field-heather alternation . The mostly low-yield common land was divided into individually cultivated fields every 12 to 40 years, the pests burned together with the chopped off bushes and the ashes applied to the fields as fertilizer. The fertilization allowed the cultivation of rye for one year and, depending on the local conditions, barley cultivation for one or two years . Then the parcels were returned to the common land, were naturally greened and grazed again.
The introduction of artificial fertilizers, the significant decline in sheep farming and the possibility of upgrading land through amelioration caused the heathland to decrease dramatically. In the area of what is now the Federal Republic of Germany, small pastures and guarding made up 3,094,000 hectares in 1878. In 2002 it was only 133,000 hectares. The large heather areas were mostly afforested with spruce or converted into fields after appropriate measures. Extensive grazing of sheep helps to keep the remaining areas as heather. The best-known example of such grazing is the use of Heidschnucken in the Lüneburg Heath . However, the emergence of juniper bushes shows a changed intensity of use here too. Juniper bushes used to be chopped off by the shepherds as pasture weeds.
With success are employed since 1983 in large areas of on the border of Germany and the Netherlands situated Zwillbrocker Venn and Amtsvenn White Polled Heath for receipt of moorland , a predominantly non incurred by agricultural Heide type one. Through this grazing, the otherwise suffocating pipe grass is pushed back and the growth of birch trees is stopped.
Grasslands
While heaths are typical for north-western Central Europe, which is more influenced by oceanic climates, you will find grasslands in southern Central Europe, which is more characterized by a continental climate. And while pest fertilization played an essential role in the development of heaths, poor grasslands were mostly created on relatively dry, calcareous soils with a shallow profile. The typical form of management was sheep farming , often in the form of a traveling sheep farm that took up huge pastures.
The use was already extensive in pre-industrial agriculture, however, due to the nocturnal pens (see above), the areas were deprived of nutrients overall. Among other things, this resulted in a shift in the species spectrum and soil degradation. In areas that are particularly badly affected, it is no longer possible to intensify land use, for example through amelioration or afforestation. Natural succession , which in Central Europe usually leads to the emergence of a mixed forest , only takes place very slowly on these soils. If pasture farming is abandoned, the areas initially become overgrown , the grasses and herbs, which are dependent on very bright locations, decrease and a very loose pine forest gradually emerges.
Scientific studies have shown that sheep farming must be continued in order to maintain the land. Thanks to the zoochory, migrating flocks of sheep are effective spreaders of plant seeds and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in otherwise isolated areas.
Wet meadows and wet grassland
see also the main article wet meadow
Wet areas are those locations whose soils are constantly moist to wet and where there is largely no vegetation due to woody plants. These areas were generally used by pre-industrial agriculture, whereby the intensity of use varied depending on the location and local conditions. Some of these areas were so dry in summer that they could be used for intensive hay extraction. Up until the first third of the 20th century, intensive land use represented only two mowings a year. Today, four mowings, and occasionally even five mowings, are common on meadows.
From the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, wet areas were often used to extract litter . Litter was needed for livestock farming, which increased rapidly in the course of the 19th century. At the same time, the collection of litter in forests was restricted and in places completely prohibited in this century, so that in some regions there was even talk of litter. The hard-fibred rush and reed plants of the wetland, however, provided a full replacement. On Lake Constance , reeds were therefore grown to gain litter, and moorland areas were drained in the Alpine foothills to create litter meadows. In Upper Bavaria and Upper Swabia , litter meadows made up 10 percent of the total meadow area in the 1930s. The mowing of reed and pipe grass meadows , which made up the majority of the litter meadows, took place in autumn, as the proportion of straw fiber-rich plant parts was particularly high. A rich spectrum of species, dependent on locations with little nutrients, was able to develop in this way, particularly on the marsh grass meadows. They include broad-leaved orchid and swallow-wort gentian , for example .
The nutrient-rich compared to moor grass tall herb corridors depend on regular mowing. These plant communities, whose main species often include meadowsweet or cabbage thistle , can be found along the banks of streams and ditches. In the past, these areas were also mown regularly in order to gain litter from the plants. If there is no mowing, this area also becomes bushy.
In today's agriculture, wet grassland is regularly one of the locations whose cultivation does not produce sufficient yield. The areas are therefore threatened with encroachment . In some regions there is an attempt to use so-called megaherbivores to create a varied and diversely structured vegetation mosaic that preserves a biodiversity typical of wet grassland. Such projects initiated by nature conservation are often referred to as so-called “wild pastures” .
One of the best-known areas cultivated in this way is Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands . Wild Koniks , Heck cattle , red deer and roe deer live on a non-cultivated area totaling 5,600 hectares . With the help of Heck cattle, attempts are also being made to protect the sewage fields near Münster and the Lippeauen near Soest from encroachment and forest cover . The experience in Oostvaardersplassen shows, however, that measures to regulate the population are necessary and that problems arise when the carcasses of the Heck cattle and the Koniks are used. The meat of the cattle may not be used for human food, as they would have to be subjected to regular veterinary checks. Therefore, there are considerations to use only game species such as red deer, wild boar and bison on such areas , since they can be marketed as game that is not subject to similarly strict requirements. Wild pastures are now part of the restoration of wilderness-like areas in cultural landscapes (see → Wilderness Development Areas ) .
Hedges
Hedges are among the most diverse landscape elements in Central Europe. According to the history of their origins, they are divided into grassland hedges and Gäuland hedges . All hedges that are specifically planted are called grassland hedges, for example the Knicks and Redder , which are elements that characterize the landscape of northern Central Europe. Their function was to protect the valuable pastures from browsing and to be represented by cattle. Extensive hedge nets were created especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, when, due to the alternating field-grass economy in Schleswig-Holstein, many plots were enclosed by hedges.
Gauland hedges, on the other hand, are more likely to be found in southern areas of Central Europe. They arose as a spontaneous growth on the areas that did not offer the people sufficient yield, so that removing the growing trees was not worthwhile. While grassland hedges along traditional cattle drives can be several centuries old, Gäuland hedges are usually relatively young. Their emergence coincides with the increasing number of cattle ranching from the middle of the 19th century. Previously, the regular grazing of the plots prevented shrub growth even on marginal yield sites.
Hedges supplied firewood and berries. They also supplied material for building fences and making tools. However, its importance as a supplier of wood and food was far less than that of the forests. Carried out by people care measures was an on-floor setting in multi-year distance, lateral limbing to avoid the obstruction in the processing of neighboring fields and the Laubschneiteln in the fall. The not yet lignified side shoots of the hedges were cut in order to be fed to the cattle as so-called deciduous hay in winter. All of these anthropogenic interventions led to hedges with plant communities that tolerate these interventions well. Species found in hedges include sloe , hazel , hornbeam , hawthorn, and dog rose .
literature
- H. Dierschke, G. Briemle: Kulturgrasland. Meadows, pastures and related herbaceous vegetation. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3800138166 .
Web links
- Extensive grazing and conservation. Characterization of a dynamic and nature-friendly land use ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 132 kB)
- Development of the cultural landscape and rural areas (PDF; 678 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Johannes Müller: Landscape elements made by human hands - biotopes and structures as a result of extensive use. Spektrum, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8274-1554-3 .
- ↑ Extensification in the lexicon of the FNL ( Memento from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on December 28, 2013).
- ^ Gerhard Henkel: The rural area - the present and processes of change since the 19th century in Germany. Teubner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-519-23430-0 .
- ↑ Hansjörg Küster : History of the Landscape in Central Europe - From the Ice Age to the Present. Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7632-4520-0 .
- ↑ Gerhard Henkel: The rural area , p. 240.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands , p. 65.
- ↑ Gerhard Henkel: The rural area , p. 241.
- ^ Gerhard Henkel: The rural area , p. 102.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands, pp. 73–75.
- ↑ Hansjörg Küster: History of the landscape in Central Europe , pp. 228-231.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands , p. 86.
- ↑ Hansjörg Küster: History of the landscape in Central Europe , p. 230.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands , p. 95.
- ↑ Hansjörg Küster: History of the Landscape in Central Europe , p. 358.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands , p. 118.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands , p. 121.
- ↑ a b Friedrich-Karl Holtmeier: Animals in the landscape - influence and ecological significance. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8252-8230-9 , p. 283.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands, pp. 126–128.
- ↑ Johannes Müller: Landscape elements from human hands, pp. 146–148.
- ^ Friedrich-Karl Holtmeier: Animals in the landscape - influence and ecological importance. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8252-8230-9 , pp. 285-286.
- ↑ C. Troll: The problem of the hedge landscape: its geographical nature and its significance for the national culture. Geography, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp. 105f.