Mellnitz-Üselitzer Wiek Nature Reserve

The Mellnitz-Üselitzer Wiek is a landscaped area in the south of the island of Rügen near Poseritz. After the construction of the new Rügen Bridge over the Strelasund between Stralsund and Altefähr, the German Unity Highway Planning and Construction Company (Deges) undertook to re-wet the Wiek as a compensatory measure to make amends for environmental damage.Before it was drained, the Wiek was last recorded as a body of water on a Prussian survey map from 1830. It had open access to the Puddeminer Wiek and covered an area of 32 hectares. With the construction of a dike around the middle of the 20th century, the breach was closed and the area was drained using a pumping station. Since then, the reclaimed area, which was about two meters below the water level of the Greifswald Bodden, was used for agriculture until 1990.Deges planned to re-wet the lake in 2012. In 2010, a flood structure was built on the neighboring Puddeminer Wiek. Two automatically controlled flood gates with a total width of 12 meters were installed to regulate the water exchange, as well as two scooping and pumping stations. The area was flooded from August 19, 2011.
The Mellnitz-Üselitzer Wiek is two meters deep at its deepest point after flooding and covers an area of 124 hectares; the entire renaturation area measures 240 hectares.
The area has now developed into a nationally important migration and resting area for water and wading birds as well as cranes. Thousands of ducks such as wigeons, mallards and tufted ducks as well as grey geese rest here. At low water, wading bird species such as lapwings and golden plovers rest in the Wiek. A large cormorant colony has established itself in the southwestern part of the Wiek.de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellnitz-%C3%9Cselitzer_Wiek