Koppelhuthe Wetland

As Andrea has already described in the tips, cattle were herded here until the 1950s.
After this lost importance due to changes in agricultural structures, the area was used for forestry. In keeping with the spirit of the times, the 21 hectares were largely reforested with spruce.The storms Wiebke (1990) and Kyrill (2007) almost completely destroyed the spruce population.The "open space" created in this way has gradually been reused over the last few years. Thanks to the successful cooperation between the town of Herbstein, the local bird and nature conservation association and the Vogelsberg district's lower nature conservation authority, a large number of different water areas have been created, which are fed by a spring area, but of course also by "surface water".Over the last few years, a mosaic of ponds of various sizes and water depths has been created here.
The extensive “water landscape” now covers an area of around 5 hectares and serves two main purposes: to create biodiversity and to retain water in the forest.In the summer heat, you can see how important such a pond system is in the forest, especially in times of little or no rainfall.The frequent death of trees due to insufficient rainfall makes the need for water storage in the forest all too clear.In the Koppelhut, on the other hand, the surface water from around 90 hectares of forest is channeled onto the area.A paradise for birds, amphibians and insectsThe stocking of small fish in some ponds (mottled shad, bitterling, roach, bleak, pond mussel) improves the underwater habitat and provides food for kingfishers, grey herons and black storks.The rare red-backed shrike can also be found in the Koppelhut.The construction of small structures such as stone piles and the placement of roots and dead wood also promotes biodiversity.

The "Koppelhuthe" is located in the valley between Herbstein and Lanzenhain, the so-called "Röderwiesen". The name goes back to the former use of this area; cattle were herded here until the 1950s. A mosaic of ponds extends over around five hectares.

This extremely impressive piece of nature can be found outside of marked routes, which provides great insights and showed me the largest frog population so far.