Field Trip 2024 to Thessaloniki (Greece)
In the early 1980s, Christina von Haaren carried out extensive research on the state and possible development scenarios of the Eifelmaare as part of her doctoral thesis. Her dissertation, entitled 'Eifelmaare - Landscape Ecological-Historical Consideration and Nature Conservation Planning', was published in 1988. Almost 40 years later, an field trip group of bachelor and master students from the IUP, led by Christina von Haaren and Malte Viergutz, returned to the Eifelmaare.
The four-day field trip took place from 6 to 9 August. From their accommodation in the DJH Daun, the excursion group undertook daily tours to the maars. On the first day, after a successful arrival, they explored the immediate surroundings of the youth hostel. The three Daun maars are within easy walking distance of the youth hostel. Due to the warm weather, the group decided to hike to the Gemünden maar (39 metres deep), which is used as a natural outdoor pool for tourists. After a refreshing dip, they continued the hike to the drone tower on the Mäuseberg. From there, there was a good view of the Weinfelder Maar (51 metres deep), which is a nature reserve. After this view, they made their way back to the youth hostel.
On the second day, the group met at 9 am with Gerd Ostermann, who has been looking after the Eifel maars and their protected areas for over 30 years. The day began with a joint trip to the Mürmes, a flat, oval maar funnel (double maar) in which a flat moor has developed with a four metre thick layer of peat. Since it was protected in 1978, the neighbouring farmland has been converted into extensive grassland. An outlet barrier has been constructed to control the water level and rewet the moor. An underground pit filled with coarse wood shavings on the lower slope successfully filters nitrates of agricultural origin from the inflowing groundwater. At the other two stations, the Sangweiher and the Trautzberger Maar, the students were also able to experience the diversity of the maars. In contrast to the large and deep Daun maars, these two are relatively small and shallow, with water depths of only a few metres. The Sangweiher is characterised by sedges, rushes and wet meadows and is therefore particularly important for bird life. The Trautzberger Maar, a former dry maar used for agriculture, was rewetted only a few years ago by closing drainage channels and building a dam. The question now is whether to keep the water surface open or to allow natural sedimentation processes to take place.
The second day ended with a meeting of local conservationists in the community centre of the village of Schalkenmehren. This was the setting for an exciting exchange between representatives from the fishing, farming and nature conservation sectors. Decades of commitment to the conservation and renaturation of the maars by associations, private individuals, the land consolidation authority and the lower and upper nature conservation authorities have resulted in many model projects in this area, making financial resources available, for example, for the purchase and extensification of fields in the catchment area of the maars. After returning to the hostel and having dinner, the plants collected during the day were examined and identified with the help of magnifying glasses and binoculars.
On the third day, after breakfast together at the youth hostel, the field trip group set off again towards the Eifel maars. First they visited the Holzmaar and the Dürre Maar. The Holzmaar (20 metres deep) can be walked around on a footpath. Here they discovered the spiked milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) as an indicator of greater nutrient availability. As they walked around the water, they came across several anglers throwing maize into the water to attract fish. The Sammet stream, which flows into the Holzmaar, has undergone extensive restoration, moving from a heavily straightened streambed at the edge of a field to a freely meandering streambed at the edge of a forest.
The neighbouring agricultural land was bought up with the help of land consolidation and turned into extensive grassland. The nearby Dürre Maar is silted up and can be found as a moor, where sedges dominate the banks and cotton grasses and peat mosses in the centre. The field trip group then travelled to the Weinfelder Maar (51 m water depth). Here they were able to observe from the shore some populations of the highly endangered Littorella uniflora and Elatine hexandra, which only occurs in nutrient-poor waters. After a lunch break together, they hiked to the Schalkenmehrener Maar. During a visit to the open-air swimming pool there, the shore and underwater vegetation was examined more closely. In the afternoon, the group hiked further along the water to a silted-up moor area of the double maar. From there, they returned to the youth hostel.
On the day of departure, the group left the youth hostel at around 10 a.m. and travelled back with a heavy heart. In the morning, the field trip group visited the nature reserve near Strohn. The valley through which the Alfbach stream flows is also known as ‘Strohn Switzerland’ due to its striking landscape with steep slopes. The field trip group then set off towards Lower Saxony around midday and arrived safely in Hanover in the early evening after some slow-moving traffic.
