Oostvaardersplassen

The nature development area Oostvaardersplassen lies on the northwestern edge of the province of Flevoland between Lelystad and Almere, near Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Development

After the draining of the southern IJsselmeer - now the province of Flevoland - in 1968 it was found that the most southern, deepest -lying part of the polder was not completely dry. The area was originally intended for the settlement of oil and heavy industry. After a further drainage brought more problems than expected and due to the global oil crisis, it was decided in 1972 to abandon the industrial use. Since agriculture was no need for additional and difficult to cultivate land, they let the land lie fallow. Within a short time, then took a natural progression to an extent and pace, not even experts had expected the.

In the country 's largest artificial lowland Ried marshland of Central Europe came with a large number of breeding, migratory, resting and wintering birds. In 1986, the Dutch government declared the area to Staatsnatuurmonument. As early as 1989 it was included in the list of internationally important wetlands under the Ramsar Convention.

Over the years, the area began to becoming overgrown as a result of natural succession. Only a few areas that were grazed intensively by Grey Goose remained open. To support this process, it was decided in the sense of Megaherbivorenhypothese for the settlement of large herbivores to keep the surfaces without human intervention permanently open. According to this theory, there were in early Europe not only dense forests, as previously assumed, but especially in the sandy plains large open areas, which are due to the dogged by large herds of grazing animals such as bison, wild horse or aurochs. So the search began in 1992 with the release of red deer, followed by Konik horses and Heck cattle.

So far was the development in the sense of the theory, so that the majority of the area today consists of forest-free open land habitats wet and dry locations. This has the natural settlement of further favors birds enormous.

After Diplomierung by the EU in 1999 Oostvaardersplassen is on equal footing with the most important European wetlands such as the Camargue and Coto de Doñana. The observed development and the size of the area it could be a model for the formation of secondary development wilderness areas. In the Netherlands, they are referred to as " nature development areas".

Natural wealth

Oostvaardersplassen is currently around 5600 acres and comprises two-thirds wet and one third dry habitats.

Unlike most open land habitats of Central European cultural landscapes that require permanent maintenance, the area is based on about 250 plant species a rather species-poor area. The structural diversity, however, is very large and can be expected for the future, that biodiversity will increase.

Around 250 species of birds have been counted, not least due to the enormous fish rich waters with a total of 17 species so far, of which 90 regularly breed in the area. Among them are especially geese, ducks, rails, wading and shorebirds, seven different species of herons and many birds of prey. These include Eagle ( since 2005), Osprey, silver and purple herons, spoonbills and Bluethroat. The breeding population of 25 species for the international wildlife conservation.

The naturalized red deer, Konik and Heck cattle, probably for reasons of the largest possible gene pool from different populations in Europe, now has nearly 2200 animals (850 deer, 1000 horses, 400 Heck cattle ) and rising. Since all three kinds of different plants exploit the animals complement each other perfectly. As a replacement for the original European wild horse and the aurochs, both of which are extinct for some centuries, Konik and Heck cattle were chosen to replace these mentioned wild varieties ecologically.

Even the carcasses of dead herbivores that are not removed rare species offer new opportunities. So now the local eagles benefit from carrion and in the spring of 2005 could be a black vulture down until he was captured on August 15 by a train and died.

Considerations to locate wolves that would be necessary to regulate the number of herbivores naturally have so far been rejected because they fear above all the opposition from hunters and farmers. Longer term, expect it to lie but the fact that wolves will sooner or later migrate from other areas in Central Europe. Currently only marten -like predators and numerous as the largest predatory foxes are found in the area.

Care

To the natural development to affect as little as possible, only two maintenance actions are carried out: on the one hand the launch of sick and severely weakened grazing animals as a substitute for the lack of predators and also the option to regulate the water level by means of a pumping station, where extreme water levels would occur. Animals that are so weakened or injured that they can not recover without help, are shot by park rangers in order to spare them unnecessary suffering. Otherwise, no action has to be performed.

Criticism

In recent years and especially in winter 2009/2010 was increasingly critical of the care measures. In winter, starving animals and starve partially. In the Dutch Parliament was discussed several times of severe winter conditions in Oostvaardersplassen. On 17 March 2010, the Parliament called on a request from the Minister of Agriculture to feed the starving animals. From animal rights activists also the high animal population is lamented in relation to the surface as a result of the lack of regulation by natural enemies or hunting.

Future development

For the future, a gradual expansion of the area was planned. The chances seemed good, since the environment is relatively sparsely populated and more and more arable land being abandoned as unprofitable. Medium term, about 11 km long and 1.5 km wide corridor ( Oostvaarderswold ) should be created by 1800 ha, which allows the animals access to the southern forest holster. So should occur by 2015 a total of 15,000 ha reserve called Oostvaardersland. These plans were shelved for political and financial reasons.

According to the ideas of conservationists a composite of natural grasslands and open land habitats of Oostvaardersplassen up in the National Park the Veluwe should arise in the course of the next few decades. In the long term was even speculated about an expansion of the area via so-called stepping-stone wilderness corridors to the Lower Rhine region and the lip.

Tourism

The majority of Oostvaardersplassen may not be entered. This serves not only the need for rest of the animals, but also the protection of visitors, because especially Heck cattle remember in their behavior very unpredictable and dangerous to their ancestors. There are, however, in the border areas, some vantage points for bird watchers and smaller hiking trails, the longest of which approximately 5 km lead through the reserve. In addition, the State Forestry Administration ( Staatsbosbeheer ), which is also responsible for the management of nature reserves in the visitor center near Lelystad various regular guided tours. All information can be found on the below website.