Großes Moor (near Gifhorn)

52.56277777777810.643888888889Koordinaten: 52 ° 33 '46 "N, 10 ° 38' 38" E

The Great Moor near Gifhorn is part of the North West German high moorland district, which extends to the glacially influenced Geest areas of the Netherlands to the eastern border of Lower Saxony. The bog originally comprised an area of ​​about 5,800 ha with nearly 5,000 acres high moor and a smaller proportion of fen. The peat layer reaches in places a thickness of almost 6 meters. Individual sections have their own name, such as Stüder Moor, Hestenmoor or White Moor.

Location

The Moor is located north of the city Gifhorn. In the east it is bounded by the Elbe- Seiten Canal. In the south of the town lies Triangle, in the West Moor extends to nature village. To the north is the place Schönewörde. The place was originally established as a bog colony Neudorf- Plate village whose village street with approximately six kilometers in length is the longest straight -town in Lower Saxony, ranging from the south in the marsh into it.

The Great Moor fills the valley of Ise to a length of 15 km and a width of 2-6 km. Some 49 km ² of the original 58 km ² of the bog are still preserved. You are by peat extraction and cultivation in different degrees degenerated state.

Reclamation and use

By the end of the 17th century only the marginal areas of the bog were used for grazing animals and peat in peasant hands down. Until about 1870, the middle and the northern part was almost unaffected. The cultivation took off in 1795 in the south with the two on the drawing board designed fenland village and New Platendorf one. They were each built into it than a kilometer long, running parallel to road embankment from the direction Gifhorn to the northeast in the bog. So the digging of drainage canals and the industrial Abtorfung, which reached its peak after 1945 began. In the 1960s there were about 14 peat works, the 60,000 tons of peat and 150,000 tons Düngetorf promoted annually. In Wester Beck (municipality Sass castle ) is still today a peat factory, which operates industrial peat extraction.

Torfverarbeitungsbetrieb in Wester Beck on the edge of the Great Moors

Abgetorfte area today meadow in the background Neudorf- Platendorf

Drainage ditch on the moors

Road through the bog

Flora and Fauna

1984, a subspecialty in size from 2,720 ha has been put under protection. It is one of the largest nature reserves in Lower Saxony. Of this, an area of ​​2,630 hectares is designated for the protection of the Great leuccorhinia than FFH area, 2,617 ha were EU bird sanctuary. By rewetting a refuge for plants and animals to be created, which are bound to wetlands. In addition, the regeneration of the bog should be encouraged. There have trained there Molinia stocks, heathland and wool swards. On the moor there was once one of the largest populations of black grouse in Germany. 1963 were still 850 grouse counted in 1982 only 20 copies and now the black grouse applicable in this field to be extinct. On the moor around 150 animals and 40 species of vascular plants have been found to apply in Lower Saxony as endangered, eleven of which are even threatened with extinction. Here, for example, live Viper, crane, Nightjar, Woodlark, Common Snipe, Grey Shrike and Stonechat. In the summer of 2003 began a major mammalian grazing project in Director of NABU District Association Gifhorn. Covering an area of ​​30 ha initially bred back aurochs and Konikponys were settled .. The existing grasslands are partly grazed by Moorschnucken and used extensively by mowing.

Trail

In Wester Beck, in the municipality of Sass castle, start two trails that run outside of the protected area in the southern part of the Great Moores. It is a 12 km long bicycle path and a 5-km long footpath. There is still next to the opportunity to explore the area by narrow-gauge railway.

Forest fire disaster in 1975

A runaway wildfire near the village Stüde on August 8, 1975, part of the fire in the Lüneburg Heath. The fire spread quickly from Stüde further and jumped over the Elbe Lateral Canal, so that the Great Moor caught fire. Already on the first burning day a fire engine at Neudorf- Plate village was overrun by a creeping barrage. Two firefighters suffered severe burns. At the same time broke in the Lüneburg Heath from another fire, which led to a catastrophic fire and were nationwide in the news. Only after 9 days on August 17, 1975, the fire had been extinguished in the woods. The peat fire in Großenmoor smoldered underground for weeks on.