A restored Fulda oxbow in eastern Hesse, protected for its breeding and migratory birdlife.
Alte Fulda bei Blankenheim
Alte Fulda bei Blankenheim is a small nature reserve in the Fulda river floodplain in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district of eastern Hesse, Germany. It protects an old oxbow, known locally as the Alte Fulda, together with adjacent wet meadows, secondary flood channels, and a small fragmented wetland east of the railway embankment. The reserve is valued primarily for ornithology, serving as both a breeding area for threatened bird species and a stepping-stone stopover for migratory birds moving along the Fulda valley.
The river once meandered freely through this landscape, and the protected oxbow is thought to be either a relic of natural channel shifting or, possibly, of medieval river engineering intended to make the Fulda navigable as far as Hersfeld. Over time the old arm silted up into a periodically flooded channel, and parts of it were re-excavated in the 1980s to recreate permanently open water surfaces while preserving the natural shoreline structure.
The site lies within a broader network of overlapping protections, including a Fauna-Flora-Habitat (FFH) site, a European Bird Directive area, and the Auenverbund Fulda landscape protection area, all part of the Natura 2000 network. Conservation management uses grazing by Red Hill cattle and the careful placement of stone mounds to maintain open habitats for birds, amphibians, reptiles, and insects.
