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Content archived on 2023-01-02

Meadows, arid grasslands and springs in the lower Isar Valley

Objective



The lower reaches of the Isar River, near Dingolfing, still have surprises to offer. In spite of massive interventions in the past such as regulation of the Isar, gravel quarrying, clearance of floodplain forest and ploughing of oligotrophic grasslands, a mosaic of ecologically valuable pockets is hanging on. Petrifying springs have built up walls of calc-tufa on the eastern slopes of the Isar valley; Festuco-Brometalia dry grasslands on calcareous substrate, with remarkable orchids, occur on the alluvial sediments away from the Isar; while alder-ash copses and "Brennen" (mounds covered in dry grassland, typical for alpine river-valleys) are found in the floodplain forest along the river itself. Yet all these belong to habitat types threatened with extinction throughout Europe.
The most valuable pockets are currently protected against direct destruction by their designation under nature protection law, but this does not mean that the creeping loss of species and habitats through abandonment of traditional land use, lowering of groundwater levels and continuous nutrient inputs from adjoining arable land, has been stopped. Moreover, the small size and fragmentation of the habitat pockets encourages the disappearance of subpopulations.

From the above it is clear urgent action is needed to conserve these habitat mosaics along the Isar. Work did not begin in earnest until 1993, and LIFE is to provide the impetus to really get things going, especially as the district is in the final stages of a rural land ownership consolidation process (Flurbereinigung). The most important goal is to improve and expand the dry grasslands from 10 to 20 hectares, whilst simultaneously interlinking isolated patches by cutting trees, removing the topsoil and leaching nutrients from agricultural land, together with the establishment of buffer zones. Furthermore, some sections of forest will be taken out of use to alleviate the shortage of old and dead wood. Physical barriers to the seepage of chemicals from arable land will be built and former gravel pits will be engineered to create Cladium mariscus habitats. All these measures imply the purchase or lease of privately-owned land and here the rural land consolidation process might be used to advantage. Purchase - the backbone of the project - will be accompanied by management planning, long-term biological observations and public information work.

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Coordinator

Bayer. Staatsministerium für Landesentwicklung und Umweltfragen
EU contribution
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Address
Rosenkavalierplatz 2
81925 München
Germany

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