History
The nature reserve "Taubergießen" is one of the last paradises in Germany. Many endangered animals and plants have their home here.

The area enclosed by the Vosges and Black Forest emerged when the path of the Rhine no longer led to the Rhône, and thus into the Mediterranean, but made its way north at Basel. Since the Taunus in the north was still an insurmountable obstacle, a huge lake was formed in what is now the Upper Rhine lowlands, which drained off again when the Rhine cleared the way through the Taunus. From then on, the created plain was used by the Rhine as a river bed and thus created a kilometer wide floodplain landscape.

Due to the melting of the glaciers in the Alps and the masses of water that flowed into the Rhine from the various tributaries, devastating floods repeatedly occurred in the Upper Rhine Plain, which threatened life in this region. The straightening of the Rhine by the Baden engineer Tulla (beginning in 1818) remedied this problem, but new disasters followed. Due to the accelerated outflow of the Rhine water, the groundwater level dropped, which led to desertification of the area. Many animal and plant species became extinct, the abundance of fish disappeared forever. The second Rhine correction in our century also led to a further drop in the water level. Areas such as Taubergießen could only be saved with the loop solution.

However, the straightening by Tulla and the construction of the Leopold Canal led to parts of the Taubergießen being cut off from the Rhine and increasingly silted up. In order to counteract this, the INTERREG project "Revitalization Taubergießen" was started. The goals are:

Restoring ecological continuity
Revitalization of the Taubergießen river landscape
Restoration of the typical conditions between the towpath and the flood dams
Minimization of damage to flora and fauna in extreme floods
Improvement of the flow conditions
Rehabilitation of the most important castings as an initial measure
Optimization of habitat types and species occurrence according to the Natura 2000 guideline
Preservation and improvement of local recreation opportunities

Nature reserve Taubergießen

• Category: Landscapes
• Photo by: Doris Holzmann
• Add Date: 18.03.2020 07:29

Tags: Nature reserve Taubergießen