Large peat bog

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Rewetted areas with dead birch trunks
In the east, the moor gradually merges into the Bastau meadows

The Großes Torfmoor nature reserve (also: Hiller Moor or Nettelstedter Moor ) is a raised bog in northeast North Rhine-Westphalia in the municipalities of Lübbecke and Hille . The moor lies in a lowland between the Wiehengebirge and the Mittelland Canal and, with 467 hectares, is the most important high moor in Westphalia .

location

The moor lies in the border area between the city of Lübbecke and the municipality of Hille in the Minden-Lübbecke district . In the north it is limited by the Mittelland Canal. For a few years now, the area to the east, a 2 to 3 km wide strip south of the canal, including the Mindener meadows, but which is largely agriculturally used wet meadows , has been included in the "Großes Torfmoor" nature reserve.

Emergence

About 11,000 years ago the Weser formed a channel lake in the area of ​​today's moor . At that time the Weser was prevented by glaciers from taking a northerly course, as it does today, and ran north of the Wiehengebirge in a westerly direction. When the glaciers melted and the Weser flowed northwards again, the Rinnensee silted up and became a moor that stretched over 20 kilometers north of the Wiehengebirge parallel to these mountains. The maximum width of this “primeval bog” was three kilometers back then. At first a fen developed , but then gradually a raised bog , the remains of which are now known as the large peat bog.

The moor was drained until the 1950s. Drainage began intensively at the beginning of the 20th century. The numerous and fish-rich waters on the moor were drained into the Flöthe, and later also into the Bastau . Today's moor lakes are only a small remnant of these original lakes and mostly remnants of peat extraction, so no natural lakes. Before it was drained, the moor was 9 to 12 meters thick. Numerous areas have also been transformed into extensively usable heather areas. Peat was probably cut in the bog from the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century . The peat was used as fuel or as building material to fill the half-timbered houses. Later the racking was also used as a bathing moor for the health resorts in the area, e.g. B. Bad Oeynhausen used. Numerous ponds are evidence of this; the largest stagnant body of water is a nameless lake with a size of 9 ha, all other ponds are smaller than 1 ha. As a result of the designation of the nature reserve, many drainage channels were sealed, barrages were put in and the atypical trees were felled, as they would have died in the now much more humid raised bog . In return, however, typical quarry forest trees such as alders were afforested.

Importance as a European protected area

As an important habitat, the Great Peat Bog Protected Area is now one of the Natura 2000 protected areas supported by EU funds . Together with the Altes Moor area , it forms the FFH area “Großes Torfmoor, Altes Moor” (FFH area number 3618-301, size approx. 605 ha).

Ecological importance

Large peat bog and old form with the Bastauniederung essential core areas in habitat connectivity between Weser Depression and the Bastau- Hunte corridor and in this regard are of paramount importance. For the natural area of ​​the Dümmer - Geest lowland, it represents the typical habitat of a raised bog, which in addition to the actual raised bog areas with an extremely structured vegetation complex also has birch bog forest and extensive wet heaths. The area is home to numerous animal and plant species - including many rare and endangered species, e.g. B. Common snipe , teal and teal as well as moor frog - a breeding, food, passage and settlement area of ​​the first order. Both ornithologically and plant-sociologically, this bog can safely be classified in the series of the most important wetlands internationally. For this reason, the Great Peat Bog was designated as a nature reserve in 1980. The core area, the actual high moor area, covers an area of ​​approx. 3.5 km² (of which 2.3 km² on Lübbecker and 1.2 km² on Hiller city / community area). The entire nature reserve, however, now covers around 20 km². The fauna also includes the white stork , which has its main distribution area in the Minden-Lübbecke district of Westphalia.

The Wiehengebirge Nature Park (in the south), the nature reserves Altes Moor and Freimoor (in the north) and the nature reserves along the canal Gehlenbecker Masch , Rauhe Horst - Schäferwiesen , Ellerburger Wiesen and Bastauwiesen are already close to the moor . Overall, the large peat bog is therefore located in a large-scale biotope network.

Flora and fauna

The common snipe , a typical moor bird species, nests in the large peat bog . There are also plants such as cranberries , sundew and rosemary heather .

Tourist importance

Moorhus from the southwest, 2015

Four well-signposted circular hiking trails (moor adventure path) with refuges open up a unique landscape for the careful visitor. In the area of ​​the central raised bog, these paths run over three dams that were built from 1843. Along the developed paths there are a few observation towers that allow an overview of the moor.

NABU visitor center Moorhus

The NABU visitor center Moorhus, which opened in 2013 on the western edge of the moor next to the Gehlenbeck outdoor pool, is an environmental education facility that is part of the North Rhine-Westphalian state network for education for sustainable development . The institution responsible for the facility offers a wide range of educational opportunities, including guided tours on the moor, including events in the visitor center and the landscaped moor garden.

The building offers seminar rooms, a café, a shop, a permanent exhibition and a temporary exhibition. The approx. 150 m² permanent exhibition informs visitors and a. About the functioning of raised bogs, their importance for the climate, the former economic use of the large peat bog, regeneration measures carried out and the flora and fauna typical of raised bogs.

Nature conservation measures for the large peat bog and the adjacent bog and grassland areas are ensured from the Moorhus.

See also

literature

  • Ernst-Günter Bulk (author), Engel.-Luth Foundation. Parish Lübbecke (ed.): The great peat bog through the ages. Memories of an ornithologist and nature conservationist from five decades. Uhle & Kleimann. Lübbecke 2007. ISBN 3928959484
  • Dagmar Diesing: The great peat bog - a unique landscape in the Minden-Lübbecke district, Minden-Lübbecke district (2005) - ISBN 3-00-015272-5
  • Heinrich Wesemann: About peat and peat management in the Hiller Moor. Communications of the Mindener Geschichtsverein, year 49 (1977), pp. 35–74.

Web links

Commons : Large Peat Bog  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Natura 2000 areas in North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on January 31, 2016.
  2. Regional Center ESD. In: moorhus.eu. NABU Kreisverband Minden-Lübbecke, accessed on October 5, 2019 .
  3. Permanent exhibition in the Moorhus. In: moorhus.eu. NABU Kreisverband Minden-Lübbecke, accessed on October 5, 2019 .
  4. The Moorhus. In: nrw.nabu.de. NABU Landesverband Nordrhein-Westfalen, accessed on October 5, 2019 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 19 ′ 38.7 "  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 39.8"  E