The area extends as an extensive inland dune area within the residential area of the town of Achim. The protected status serves primarily to preserve and develop the silver grass meadows, sandy dry grasslands, and sandy heaths, as well as to protect and promote the wild native plants and animals and their habitats. Of particular note are threatened hymenoptera such as stinging insects from the groups of garden wasps, golden wasps, and digger wasps, bees and ants, as well as tiger beetles, butterflies, and grasshoppers, such as the critically endangered blue-winged grasshopper.
The nutrient-poor, dry sands are essential for the occurrence of the dry heather patches and the open, lichen-rich sandy dry grasslands characteristic of the area. In the peripheral areas of the area, rare, unused, light mixed oak forests have developed, consisting of old solitary oaks and multi-stemmed, sometimes partially decaying trees and lying deadwood, which are of great importance from a species conservation perspective.
Deeper mining has created a nutrient-poor body of still water in the center of the area, the so-called "Ellisee." Due to its mostly steep banks, it has only rudimentary vegetation. The banks are predominantly covered in small areas and are covered with mesotrophic or pioneer forest scrub.