Feel the dry sand beneath your feet. This is Sandtrockenrasen Achim. A seemingly ordinary landscape holds a fascinating history. This nature reserve in Achim near Bremen is more than just sand dunes and scrub.
Sandtrockenrasen Achim is a 57-hectare protected area. It’s part of a former inland dune area. This area once stretched along the Weser River. Most of those dunes were removed. However parts remain. The Ellisee a lake formed by sand excavation lies within this special place.
Sandtrockenrasen Achim’s unique ecosystem thrives on nutrient-poor dry sands. Silvergrass meadows and sand heath with common heather dominate the landscape. These rare sand grasslands are among the few larger remaining in Lower Saxony. To keep them healthy grazing animals like Heidschnucken sheep and goats are used. This helps prevent the area from becoming overgrown with bushes.
The land wasn’t always a nature reserve. The Uphuser Berge were large dunes before the 20th century. Sand was quarried before World War I to build railway embankments in Bremen. Borgward a Bremen-based company used the area for testing military vehicles. This was from before World War II until the late 1950s. Further sand extraction occurred in the 1960s for projects like the Bremen Kreuz highway interchange.
Today Sandtrockenrasen Achim is a haven for many plants and animals. Rare insects are found here. These include Hymenoptera such as spider wasps and cuckoo wasps. There are also tiger beetles butterflies and even the endangered blue-winged grasshopper. The reserve also protects rare lichens and diverse flora.
The ongoing conservation efforts at Sandtrockenrasen Achim are impressive. In 2022 a project focused on restoring habitat types 2310 and 2330. The project removed woody plants. They also carefully managed the soil. They even had to handle unexploded ordnance from the area’s past.
So take a moment to appreciate this special place. Sandtrockenrasen Achim is a testament to nature’s resilience and human dedication to conservation. This area offers a glimpse into the past while protecting a unique ecosystem for the future.