In the 15th century people started cutting peat in the Emsdettener Venn. Fuel was made from the peat. The moor experienced the greatest change around 100 years ago when large areas were "cultivated" for agriculture, drained and peat extraction intensified. As early as 1941, the Venn was placed under nature protection in order to preserve the last remains of the high moor. Today, just 100 hectares of the peat layer has been preserved and efforts are being made to renaturate the moor. In 2004, the Venn was designated an FFH (Fauna-Flora-Habitat) area, a special protection category of the EU.
The so-called Umringweg leads around the Venn. And there is a bog nature trail. Various stations have been set up along this path to provide information about the flora and fauna in the moor. The flyer about the moor, which can be found in a small wooden box at the Ahlintel hiking car park, is helpful. In this flyer you will learn a lot of interesting things about the moor and its flora and fauna.
On the way there is a seven-meter-high lookout tower, from which you have a great view of the entire peat bog area, and about a kilometer before the Ahlintel car park there is another lookout platform, from which you can watch birds on the wet meadows.