Wetland Habitat at the Ruhr Bend (Former Alstaden Mine)

Small wetland at the Ruhrbogen

A look at the history or the origin of this biotope is particularly interesting 🧐 : "... The activities of the Alstaden mine concentrated relatively early on the site of shaft 2/3, as this was also where the seams worth mining were located and the railway connection was available. From 1936 onwards, the new shaft 3 was the production shaft, shaft 2 became the ropeway and material shaft. From then on, production was always around 300,000 t/a. The plant was shut down at the end of 1972. The briquette factory was shut down on March 31, 1973. After that, all the facilities were demolished and the shafts filled. The dump located in the Ruhraue was bought by the city of Oberhausen after it was shut down and caught fire during exploratory drilling. Fine coal that had previously been dumped as unusable ignited. The resulting smoldering fire lasted for years. To protect the Ruhr, a ring dike was therefore built around the dump, as harmful Substances were washed out by precipitation. The dump ultimately had to be removed because of the smoke gases. The A3, which runs past the dump, was also repeatedly "fogged". Within eleven years, 3.5 million tonnes of dump material were transported away by truck and ship, and a barge burned out. Today there is a wetland biotope there. ..."
ruhrzechenaus.de/oberhausen/ob-alstaden.html waz.de/staedte/oberhausen/wo-die-halde-in-alstaden-brannte-ist-heute-ein-biotop-id6891259.html
wagnerul.de/Haldenbrand.html