Under the seal at Bebra

Under the seal at Bebra IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area
View from the southern border into the reserve.
location	North of Bebra in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeast Hesse .
surface	8.8 hectares
Identifier	1632006
WDPA ID	82758
Geographical location	50 ° 59 ′  N , 9 ° 49 ′  E Coordinates: 50 ° 59 ′ 23 "  N , 9 ° 48 ′ 30"  E
Sea level	220  m
Setup date	1983
particularities	Special protection as a nature reserve .

Under the seal near Bebra is the name of an area of ​​floodplain that is about two kilometers north of Bebra in the north-east Hessian district of Hersfeld-Rotenburg . After the abandonment of agricultural use and the damming of the ditches, the damp meadows as well as the sedges and reeds have become habitats for endangered animal and plant species. In order to protect the area and improve it through extensification and renaturation, it was declared a nature reserve in 1983 .

Geographical location

The protected area is located in the Asmushäuser Grund in the Bebrabach valley . In this part the valley is flanked to the east by the Ziegenberg ( 333  m ) and to the west by the Welgersberg. The nature reserve is located in the Bebra and Asmushausen districts of the town of Bebra in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district. In the west it is bounded by a cycle path along federal highway 27 and in the north and south by agricultural paths. In the upper part the Bebrabach forms the eastern border and in the lower part the hillside meadow “Vorm Wagenroth” was included in the protected area east of the creek.

In terms of natural space , this area is assigned to the sub-unit “ Haselbach-Bebra-Bergland ” in the “ Fulda-Werra-Bergland ”, which belongs to the main unit group “ Osthessisches Bergland ”.

Protected position

With the ordinance of November 30, 1983 of the District Directorate for Forests and Nature Conservation at the regional council in Kassel , which came into force on the day after the publication in the State Gazette for the State of Hesse on December 19, 1983, the wetland "Unterm Siegel" was declared a nature reserve . The purpose of the protection was "to secure and maintain the ecologically significant and diverse fallow wet meadows with pronounced sedge stocks as well as a near-natural section of the Bebrabach with partly dense bank vegetation as a habitat for threatened animal and plant species." The protected area has a size of around 8 , 8 hectares, has the national identifier 1632006 and the WDPA code 82758.

nature

The protected area is characterized by various, closely interlinked wetlands . Sedge and reed stocks occupy the largest share of the area, in which the occurrence of the beak sedge and panicle sedge is considered to be of regional importance.

The Bebrabach is shaded by a thick alluvial forest.

The Bebrabach flows through the area with a length of around 750 m. It is about 10 kilometers long, small flowing water that flows into the Fulda on the right-hand side southwest of Bebra . The natural stream is shaded in the protected area by a fringe of willows and alders.

In the 1980s, to improve the biotope, the existing drainage and drainage ditches in the floodplain area were dammed up in order to rewet the area. Other measures, in addition to the removal of poplar plantings, were the creation of several ponds. They became spawning waters for common toads , common frogs , green frogs , mountain , crested , thread and pond newts . In 1996, a permanent amphibian protection system with six tubes was installed along federal highway 27 to protect the populations that overwinter west of the protected area on the other side of the road from losses due to traffic. Toad, frog and newt species must of necessity to the Leitbarrieren walk along and thus arrive at the amphibian tunnels , where they can cross under the road safely.

In the areas that are occupied by the wet meadows , broad-leaved orchid and marsh marigold are considered floristic features. The mowing of these meadows was initially carried out by volunteer conservationists from the Hessian Society for Ornithology and Nature Conservation (HGON) from 1982, and later also by employees of the former Nentershausen Forestry Office . Contract farmers are currently taking care of the extensive maintenance of the fresh and wet meadows, who also take care of the removal and use of the clippings. The meadows are the habitat for the grass snake , slow worm , forest and sand lizard .

With over twenty documented dragonfly species, the “Unterm Siegel” nature reserve is one of the most species-rich in the region. The occurrence of the southern rush damsel , the small rush damsel and the brown rush damsel is considered to be remarkable .

Reeds in the southern part of the rewetted Bachaue.

Once the work for rewetting settled in the reeds and the transition zones to Seggenried as regular breeding birds mallard , water rail , moorhen , reed warbler and grebe on. Their territories on Bebra Bach and partly outside of the protected area have dipper and gray wagtail . Star and wagtail are guests who spend the night in the extensive reed beds. The gray heron , teal , marsh harrier , kingfisher and others use the area of ​​the protected area as train and food guests .

Tourist development

The nature reserve is intended as an undisturbed quiet zone and is not accessible via paths. The protected area should not be entered, but can be seen from the cycle path that leads past the western edge and from the farm path on the southern border. There is also an information board here about the protected area.

literature

• Lothar and Sieglinde Nitsche, Marcus Schmidt: Nature reserves in Hessen , Volume 3, cognitio Verlag, Niedenstein 2005, pp. 191 and 192. ISBN 3-932583-13-2 .

Web links

Commons : "Unterm Siegel bei Bebra" nature reserve  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Albrecht Ensgraber: Hessen new nature reserves in bird and environmental f, Journal of Ornithology and Nature Conservation in Hesse, Volume 3, No. 4, pp 239th Wiesbaden, April 1985.
2. ↑ Classification of natural areas according to Otto Klausing in the Hessen Environmental Atlas at atlas.umwelt.hessen.de ; accessed on July 9, 2019.
3. ↑ Quoted from the ordinance on the nature reserve "Unterm Siegel bei Bebra" of November 30, 1983 in the State Gazette for the State of Hesse, edition 51/83 of December 19, 1983, p. 2423 f.
4. ^ "Under the seal at Bebra" in the world database on protected areas; accessed on July 9, 2019.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Information from the text on the display board on the edge of the protected area and the publications of the HGON working group Hersfeld-Rotenburg.
6. ^ Lothar and Sieglinde Nitsche, Marcus Schmidt: Nature reserves in Hessen , Volume 3, p. 191 f.
7. ↑ The board, which shows photos of the protected animals and plants, was designed by the bird conservationist Arno Werner from Bebra.