HISTOUR point BG31 | Former peat quarrying area
The Eggstedter Moor is a 260-hectare lowland area of the Holstenau that is rapidly being drained. In the past, peat was also extracted here for heating and soil improvement. The local peat baking association commemorates this tradition with annual demonstrations.
The still preserved peat cuttings and the drainage ditches running through the agriculturally used grassland offer numerous plants and animals that are almost extinct today a last habitat. Eleven species of freshwater snails, five species of freshwater mussels and 14 different species of dragonflies live in the Eggstedter Moor, including the rare green damselfish. Breeding bird species that have become rare today include lapwing and skylark.
Raised bogs in western Schleswig-Holstein were mostly formed from low bogs, which in turn had formed in damp depressions. The peat mosses that form the peat only need air, sun, lots of rainwater and dust that has been blown in to grow. Raised bogs are therefore not dependent on nutrient-rich water from the subsoil for their growth, the plant and animal world is poor in species, but specialized in this habitat.