Nemitzer Heide

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Nemitz heath at the time of heather -Blüte

The Nemitzer Heide is a heathland area of around 550 hectares in the Elbhöhen-Wendland Nature Park , which lies between the towns of Nemitz , Trebel and Prezelle .

Emergence

The heather area was created by the fire in the Lüneburg Heath , which led to several large fires in the dried out coniferous forests of the Lüneburg Heath from August 8, 1975 during a prolonged dry period . A large fire broke out near Gorleben on August 12, 1975 at around 12 noon, and by 10 p.m. had destroyed around 2,000 hectares of forest and arable land. Fighting the fire was difficult because initially only one fire truck was available. The villages of Nemitz, Lanze and Prezelle had to be evacuated in the afternoon, but were spared the fire. With the support of the Federal Armed Forces and the fire brigades advancing from North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, the threat to the town of Trebel was averted and the fire contained in the evening hours.

A large part of the burned-down areas was not reforested. It was a former heathland on which, as in large parts of the Lüneburg Heath, large areas of pine forests were planted from the second half of the 19th century. After the fire of 1975, the Nemitzer Heide developed over time as a dwarf shrub heather with pines , birches , juniper and open sand dunes on the dry and nutrient-poor sandy soils . Characteristic are large-scale dry and poor grassland communities , which form the largest sandy heather complex in the Lower Saxony lowlands. About one kilometer to the north is a clearing created by the fire in 1975 at the former deep drilling site 1004. It was occupied in 1980 by supporters of the anti-nuclear movement who proclaimed the Free Wendland Republic there . Later the clearing also turned into a heather landscape.

Natural space

Rest area with benches in the Nemitzer Heide

The heather is tended by grazing with a herd of heather sheep of around 350 animals under the supervision of a shepherd. The browsing prevents the heather from being displaced by trees and rejuvenates the heather plants.

The Nemitzer Heide offers varied habitats due to the changing soil conditions with dunes and slopes, so that numerous protected plants and animals have settled in the open landscape. These include fence and forest lizards , smooth snakes , wasteland insects, western snakes and the little peacock butterfly . Of rare birds, the Tawny Pipit, find Stonechat , Wheatear , Woodlark , shrike and nightjar . The Nemitzer Heide and its surroundings are designated as an FFH and EU bird sanctuary on 1061 hectares , around 1064 hectares are under nature protection.

tourism

Nemitzer Heidehaus

From a tourist point of view, the heather area is made accessible by marked hiking trails with shelters and benches, and there is also a range of carriage rides. For visitors there is the Nemitzer Heidehaus located between Trebel and Nemitz, an information center as a replica of a thatched heather farmhouse. In the half-timbered building there is an exhibition on the cultural and natural history of the heath, which can also be experienced by blind and visually impaired visitors. During the heather bloom, a heather blossom festival has been held every year since 1985 on the last weekend in August, at which the heather queen is chosen.

Web links

Commons : Nemitzer Heide  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Nemitzer Heideblütenfest ( memento of the original from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.region-wendland.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 59 ′ 37 ″  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 33 ″  E