A small but ecologically rich stream valley on the boundary of Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, and Oberhausen.
Hexbachtal Nature Reserve
The Hexbachtal is a small side valley of the Emscher river, situated in the border area between the cities of Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, and Oberhausen in the Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Most of the valley is designated as a landscape protection area, while the stream-adjacent zones in Mülheim an der Ruhr have the stronger status of a nature reserve, established in February 2005. With a protected core of about 4.2 hectares and a broader open landscape of roughly 2.5 square kilometers, the valley forms an important green corridor within the densely urbanized Ruhr conurbation.
The valley takes its name from the Hexbach, a small stream that flows from the watershed between the Ruhr and Emscher rivers northward toward the Emscher. Along its course, the Hexbach cuts into the landscape from its southern source area and slows down as it reaches the flatter Emscher lowland, allowing the formation of meanders, small side branches, and a characteristic floodplain forest. Today the Hexbachtal is used as a local recreation area, but it also retains significant ecological and historical value as one of the remaining open valleys within the Ruhr metropolitan region.
Ecologically, the Hexbachtal is notable for its floodplain forest, wet meadows, springs, and structured stream corridor, providing habitat for regionally threatened plant and animal species. Its protection history stretches back to early twentieth-century incorporation agreements that already called for the preservation of the so-called Siepen valleys, and the valley later became a focal point of the regional green belt concept that has shaped spatial planning in the Ruhr area.
