Oker and Eckertal in the districts of Goslar and Wolfenbüttel

Nature reserve Oker and Eckertal in the districts of Goslar and Wolfenbüttel IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area
The Oker in the Okertal nature reserve near Schladen
location	Oker valley between Vienenburg and Schladen ( Lower Saxony )
surface	385 ha
Identifier	NSG BR 152
WDPA ID	555638583
Geographical location	51 ° 59 '  N , 10 ° 35'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 59 '16 "  N , 10 ° 34' 47"  E
Setup date	05/01/2017
administration	NLWKN

The Oker and Eckertal in the districts of Goslar and Wolfenbüttel is a nature reserve in the Lower Saxony cities of Goslar and Bad Harzburg in the district of Goslar and the municipality of Schladen-Werla in the district of Wolfenbüttel .

The nature reserve with the registration number NSG BR 152 is around 385  hectares . Large parts of the nature reserve are also designated as FFH area "Harly, Ecker and Okertal north of Vienenburg" and the area of ​​the Oker valley is part of the EU bird sanctuary "Okertal near Vienenburg".

The area has been a nature reserve since May 1, 2017. It includes the 246 hectare "Okertal" nature reserve (NSG BR 043) in Lower Saxony, which was declared on June 2, 1982, and the 27.5-hectare nature reserve " Vienenburger Kiesteiche " (NSG BR 019) , which was declared on November 2, 1979. as well as parts of the "Harz (district of Goslar)" protected landscape area.

location

The nature reserve is located northeast of Goslar. It borders between Schladen and Vienenburg on the nature reserve " Okertal " in Saxony-Anhalt and on the south-west of Vienenburg on the nature reserve " Okertal south of Vienenburg ". To the north of Vienenburg it borders in places on the "Harli" landscape protection area , between the districts of Abbenrode and Stapelburg in the municipality of North Harz (Saxony-Anhalt) on the "Harz (district of Goslar)" protection area and south of Stapelburg on the "Harz and northern Harz foreland" landscape protection area as well as the Harz National Park . The nature reserve is located south of Bundesstraße 6 within the Harz Nature Park .

description

The nature reserve consists of three areas. It extends along the Oker between Schladen in the north and an area bordering the B 6 between Vienenburg and Goslar in the south and along the Ecker in Lower Saxony between the confluence of the Ecker and the Oker in the north and the cardboard factory in the middle Eckertal for around 2.5 Kilometers above the Bad Harzburg district of Eckertal . The two sub-areas north and south-west of Vienenburg are connected by the nature reserve "Okertal south of Vienenburg". Along the Ecker, the nature reserve is interrupted by the course of the river, which is partly in the area of ​​the municipality of Nordharz in Saxony-Anhalt; The course of the river and adjacent areas are part of the FFH area "Ecker- und Okertal".

The nature reserve places sections of the Oker and Ecker and the adjacent valley areas under protection. An abandoned gravel pit is located north of the Wiedelah district of Goslar . The resulting lake, also known as "Wiedelaher See" or "Wiedelaher Teich", was renatured and included in the nature reserve. The gravel pond is used by a fishing club and a diving school outside of the areas covered by the FFH and bird protection guidelines. Other gravel ponds, which are managed by fishing clubs, are located south of Schladen within the nature reserve. There are also several ponds in the nature reserve northwest of Wiedelah, as well as the gravel ponds between Goslar and Vienenburg, which have been under nature protection since the end of 1979.

A weir at the level of the “Schwarze Brücke” railway crossing, a little above Schladen, has been supplemented by an approximately 170-meter-long diversion channel and the Oker has become accessible there for migratory fish and other aquatic life.

The rivers and streams of the Oker and Ecker are predominantly close to nature with a meandering course in parts with impact and sliding banks and flooding water vegetation. Extensive gravel banks , flood hollows and oxbow lakes can be found on the Oker in particular . Oker and Ecker held mainly by narrow forest areas with riparian forest character and shore Staudenfluren accompanied. The predominant tree species are black alder , common ash and white willow as well as other typical species of the softwood floodplain . The alluvial forests have a high proportion of old and dead wood . Small areas of steep oak, oak-hornbeam and beech forests can be found. Between Schladen and Wiedelah, the nature reserve borders in the west on the distinctive middle terrace edge of the Okertal. Forest communities of oak, ash, cherry, hazelnut and mountain ash as well as various dry bushes grow here. In several places along the Oker there are heavy metal-influenced river gravel and grasslands that also occupy larger areas near Vienenburg. There are also gravel meadows rich in tall forebears. Old slag heaps containing heavy metals can be found along the Ecker. In some places there are species-rich grassland areas used as hay meadows as well as wet and wet meadows as feeding habitats for meadow birds in the nature reserve. On areas affected by heavy metals settle and a. Galmeigrasnelke , beach Thrift , calamine Spring Minimize , strigoli and lichens such. B. reindeer lichen and various grasses. The Ecker flows west of Stapelburg on the eastern edge of the Schimmerwald with beech and oak-hornbeam communities. The tree layer is dominated by the common beech. These are joined by z. B. ash and sycamore . Wood anemones , woodruff , flutter grass as well as wild garlic and spring cups settle in the herb layer . The forest areas of the Schimmerwald also have a high proportion of old and dead wood. South of the Schimmerwald, the end of the deeply cut Eckertal in the Harz is part of the nature reserve.

Oker and Ecker are living space u. a. of brown trout , minnow and three-spined stickleback as well as bullhead and brown lamprey . To the water areas come hood and little grebes , herons and Pochard , water rail and Kingfisher ago. In the Okertal there is an inland occurrence of the middle saw , in addition to another occurrence in the Innerste, the only inland occurrence of the bird in Lower Saxony. There is an otter occurrence in the nature reserve . Further, the protected area habitat of harrier , red and black Milan , owl , black stork , black , green , medium and small Specht , devil , Turteltaube , Neuntöter , Nachtigall , Oriole , Braunkehlchen , Feldlerche , warbler , Beutelmeise , wagtail , dipper , Little ringed plover , sandpiper and sand martin . The lapwing , corncrake and wryneck are also native here.

The gravel ponds and other still waters are important as a habitat for water birds as well as amphibians , insects and invertebrates . They accommodate u. a. Spawnweed and frog-bite societies.

The nature reserve, which is a migratory corridor for wild cats , otters and bats from the Harz to the Harz foreland and Leinebergland , is often surrounded by agricultural land . In Schladen, Wiedelah and Stapelburg or Eckertal, it borders on populated areas. In Wiedelah as well as in Eckertal, the nature reserve is limited to the Ecker stream. The Braunschweig – Bad Harzburg railway line follows the course of the lowland between Wiedelah and Schladen. South of Wiedelah it crosses the nature reserve twice in the course of the Ecker. The Heudeber-Danstedt – Vienenburg railway line also crosses the protected area here. Federal motorway 36 crosses the nature reserve between Vienenburg and Wiedelah and federal highway 6 to the south-east of Vienenburg.

Web links

Commons : Oker and Eckertal in the districts of Goslar and Wolfenbüttel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Nature reserve "Oker and Eckertal in the districts of Goslar and Wolfenbüttel" in the database of the Lower Saxony State Office for Water Management, Coastal and Nature Conservation (NLWKN)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ponds and more , Association Vienenburger Sportfischer e. V. Accessed May 11, 2017.
2. ↑ Wiedelah village community. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
3. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Sauer, Irene Balage: The fish passages on the Oker (2009) , Association for the Promotion of the Resettlement of Salmon and Sea Trout in Lower Saxony 2000 e. V. (PDF, 4.4 MB). Retrieved May 6, 2019.
4. ↑ Reiner Cornelius: Stapelburger Grenzgeschichten and the Eckertal , The Harz - Nature and Culture on the Green Belt Germany (PDF, 683 kB). Retrieved May 11, 2017.