Váté písky

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Váté písky, winter

Váté písky (German: Flugsande) is a national natural monument in the South Moravia region , Czech Republic . It covers a 99.8 hectare strip of drift sand along the Břeclav - Přerov railway line . The last remnant of the area once known as the “Moravian Sahara” is home to numerous sand-loving plant and animal species.

The sand layer consists of sediments from the March . The acidic and quartzite-containing sands were loosened by the wind at the end of the last Ice Age (around 9,000 to 12,000 years ago) and deposited in layers up to 30 meters thick along the banks. The sand areas were then covered by a mixed deciduous forest. Intensive use as forest pasture made the original vegetation disappear by the 18th century and exposed the layers of sand. Sandstorms created dunes ; In 1827 the area was already completely desolate. This was remedied by the forest official Jan Bedřich Bechtel, who until 1849 laid out more than 2000 hectares of pine forest in the Moravian Sahara in a large-scale reforestation program . Only a 60-meter-wide and 5.5-kilometer-long strip remained unforested: The reason for this was the new line of the Kaiser-Ferdinands-Nordbahn , which began operating in 1841 and whose steam locomotives needed a fire protection zone. The safety zone remained intact until steam operations were stopped in 1970.

In the 130 years of steam locomotive operation, a specific biotope developed in the sandstrip, the flora and fauna of which are adapted and bound to the acidic sands. Characteristic species are the silver grass and the sand feather grass . The protected plants include, for example, the sheath sheep fescue , the violet mullein and the spring spark . The sand provides habitat for ant lions , grasshoppers and praying mantises . Large populations of the eastern green lizard and smooth snake can also be found here. In 1990 the sandstrip received the status of a national natural monument. Since the end of the steam locomotive era also stopped the numerous fires that had a positive impact on biodiversity, the sand strip is kept open primarily by mowing.

Literature and web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 55 '34 "  N , 17 ° 14' 58"  E