For almost 50 years, the entire Ammersee with the Ammermoos in the south and the Ampermoos in the north has been designated as an international Ramsar protected area.
At first glance, the Ammermoos and the Ampermoos have a lot in common, especially in terms of their biodiversity.
Dießen
- But there are also small differences.
Starnberger Merkur spoke about this in its series on the 50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention with area manager Christian Niederbichler.
While the Ampermoos is one of the largest remaining river valley fens north of the Alps that is influenced by groundwater, the Ammermoos is one of the last contiguous lake reeds in the south.
The Ampermoos, through which the Amper flows, extends over around 530 hectares between Grafrath and the Ammersee.
This means that the Ampermoos is significantly larger than the Ammermoos, which still extends over 450 hectares on the southern shore of the Ammersee, southeast of Dießen and northwest of Fischen.
The Rott and the Ammer flow through the Ammermoos, and the so-called Birkenallee crosses.
The moors
In both areas there is a great diversity of plants, and numerous, highly specialized inhabitants of wetlands such as meadow breeders, butterflies and dragonflies find their habitat here.
Today's landscape in the Ammermoos and Ampermoos can be traced back to centuries of agricultural use.
The moor areas were and are mainly used as litter meadows to obtain feed and litter for the animals in the barn.
“The Ammermoos used to extend to Weilheim.
What is still there today is only a small remnant. After all, the Ammer was straightened around 100 years ago in order to make the moss usable for agriculture, ”says Niederbichler.
In contrast to the Ampermoos, however, the Ammermoos has never lost its tradition of nature-friendly litter meadow management, which is why the silting area in the south of the Ammersee is particularly rich in species and flowers to this day.
Open areas and niches for light-loving plants such as gentian or flour primrose and small plants that form rosettes and leaves on the ground have been preserved.
In Ampermoos, on the other hand, traditional litter use came to a standstill in the 1960s, because the farmers had enough straw from their fields all around.
Then the Ampermoos lay fallow for around 25 years, the areas became matted without the mowing and became impoverished, while the litter meadows in the Ammermoos were able to preserve their extremely high biodiversity.
“In the south there is still a whole range of rare wetland butterflies due to the diversity of plants, including highly endangered Red List species that have unfortunately become extinct in the Ampermoos,” reports Niederbichler.
Rewetting
In 1986/87 a maintenance and development plan was drawn up for the Ampermoos.
Large, thick layers of scatter felt were removed, and in 2013 the new bed sill at Grafrath was put into operation, which has since ensured the urgently needed rewetting and revitalized the Ampermoos.
Meanwhile, meadow breeders such as common snipe and curlew feel at home again in the largely tree and shrub-free area.
The snipe population has doubled, and nine curlew breeding pairs were last counted.
"In Ammermoos there are only four," says Niederbichler.
This is not least thanks to the care of the biologist and animal filmmaker Susanne Hofmann from Grafrath, who fenced and guarded the clutches in Ampermoos, for example to protect them from foxes and dogs.
Even light-loving plants that could only survive occasionally have a chance again in the Ampermoos, for example for white cottongrass or flour primrose.
“The stemless gentian, which many know, is considered to be extinct in Ampermoos.
There is still it at the southern end.
Plant diversity
Due to the diversity of plants on the littered meadows around the Ammer delta in the south, extremely rare butterfly species such as the reed devil, the golden piebald butterfly or the gentian-ant-blue have a chance there.
A small part of the population even survived the floods in 1999 and 2005. That only worked, says Niederbichler, because there are small areas on the edge of the Ammermoos that were not flooded.
For example, meadows west of the railway line or small, intact litter meadow deposits on the Orff property in St. Georgen or at the Mechtildis fountain.
“The butterflies can survive on these islands in order to repopulate the Ammermoos again.” That is one reason, according to Niederbichler, why regional nature conservation associations are increasingly trying to find small areas on the edges of the nature reserves.
The Ampermoos can also shine with flora and fauna: Schneidried stocks in the northern part are a specialty.
With around 200 hectares, this stock is one of the largest of its kind in Central Europe according to the European Habitats Directive.
Hen harriers also have their winter roost in the Schneidried with its sharp-edged leaves, and on this head-high sour grass there is a specialized small butterfly (Glyphipterix schoenicolella), which was long considered extinct in Bavaria and was rediscovered in Ampermoos about ten years ago.
Intact Schneidriedröhrichte are interspersed with Schlenken, small spring pools with carnivorous water hose species that react to contact by insects or small crustaceans.
Even very rare dragonfly and snail species feel very comfortable in this environment along the Amper, for example the Green Keiljungfer, a rare river dragonfly that has a large population on the Amper in Ampermoos.
Hen harriers
From the observation tower on the edge of the moss near Kottgeisering, which was built in the shape of a bird's head in 2015, you can, with a little luck, watch a beautiful spectacle in the winter months.
Numerous hen harriers meet here one to two hours before sunset.
The rare birds of prey do not sleep on trees, but on the ground.
Together they circle over the Ampermoos and settle down in the Schneidried when it gets dark.
Well hidden and protected by the community, they spend the night there as a sleeping commune.
The largest hen harrier roost in southern Germany is located here.
Ursula Nagl
