The Amper is around 100 kilometers long.
Kerstin Kamm's workplace also extends along this length.
The biologist has been the area manager for the Ampertal since April.
She wants to bring people closer to this river, but also protect the sensitive nature from too much curiosity.
A balancing act.
District - The Ampertal is a so-called FFH area (flora-fauna-habitat) over the entire length of the water body.
With an area of just over 2000 hectares, it is part of the Europe-wide network of protected areas, Natura 2000. Protected assets: the species that occur there and their habitats.
And, according to Kamm, they are particularly diverse.
"In the Ampertal there are shady beech forests, moist alluvial forests, fens and species-rich rough meadows in a very small space," says the biologist who lives in Dachau.
This diversity is also due to the fact that the river flows through three completely different natural spaces.
First there is the hilly terminal moraine at the mouth of the Ammersee.
From Fürstenfeldbruck you can find the Munich gravel plain.
To the northeast of Dachau, the river finally meanders through the tertiary Danube-Isar hill country.
Whereby "meanders" no longer applies to all sections of the river.
Because originally the Amper was even 140 kilometers long - before the so-called Amper correction (i.e. straightening / aligning the course of the river) reached its peak at the beginning of the 20th century.
“A lot of space was lost as a result,” says Kamm.
The remaining areas, which include two nature reserves, are all the more worthy of protection: the Amperauen with their Leitenwäldern between Bruck and Schöngeising and the Amperauen with oxbow lakes near Palzing (Freising district).
At some points, however, the straightening has even created new habitats: Former tributaries of the Amper have been cut off from the main arm and, for example, form bodies of water between Schöngeising and Fürstenfeldbruck that also serve as living space.
Kamm took over the Ampertal at the beginning of April - limited to three years and part-time - from her predecessor Sebastian Böhm. He now works for the Dachau Landscape Management Association, which, with its counterparts in Bruck and, more recently, Freising, is responsible for the area management. Kamm, who grew up in the north of Munich, felt magically attracted to nature and especially the river as a child.
In addition to studying biology at the LMU Munich, she was involved in the nature conservation and state association for bird protection. She studied in the USA and New Zealand, where she worked for four years on a bird protection project on an island. For many years she also oversaw the exhibition of tropical butterflies in the Botanical Garden in Munich. Most recently she was responsible for a Natura 2000 protected area in Thuringia. "I have always been fascinated by the interface between man and nature."
She also plays a central role in her work as area supervisor.
On the one hand, Kerstin Kamm has made public relations and environmental education her task.
This includes guided tours for school classes, but also for adults, as well as holiday programs.
On the other hand, there is the protection of the Ampertal from the enormous leisure pressure from the entire Munich metropolitan area.
Visitor management is the magic word to protect nature from overly intensive recreational use.
Kerstin Kamm relies on information and only to a limited extent on prohibitions.
“You have to explain to people why certain areas are special,” she says.
She wants to use barriers or similar rather discreetly - where it is necessary.
But she doesn't want to do without barriers either.
After all, the green virgin, the bellied diaper snail and the black head (see below) should continue to feel at home in the Ampertal.
Species provide information about the state of the area
Many of the animal and plant species living in the FFH area are also endangered.
However, according to area supervisor Kerstin Kamm, the animals on FFH lists are not to be seen in the same way as the endangered species on the red list.
In connection with a flora-fauna-habitat (FFH) one speaks of reference species, which give clues for the condition of the area.
"What helps the flagship species also benefits many other species."
Examples of key species in the Ampertal are the green virgin (a dragonfly that primarily colonizes flowing waters), the bellied diaper snail (it prefers moist and calcareous soils) and the black headed snail from the sour grass family (likes calcareous soils).
ad