An inland sand dune reserve in the Hessian Rhine plain, shaped by tanks and treasured for rare dry grassland life.
Glockenbuckel von Viernheim
Glockenbuckel von Viernheim is a small nature reserve in the town of Viernheim, in the Bergstrasse district of Hesse, Germany. It lies in the Hessisches Ried between Viernheim and the Mannheim metropolitan area, where the Upper Rhine Plain narrows toward the edge of the Odenwald. The reserve protects roughly 40 hectares of inland sand dunes and dry sandy grassland, forested in pine and surrounded by larger woodland. Its open, slightly undulating landscape, known locally as the Viernheimer Heide, is one of the most important inland sand habitats in all of Hesse. The area is simultaneously protected as a Natura 2000 site under the EU Habitats Directive and lies within a larger bird protection area in the southern Hessian Upper Rhine plain.
What makes the reserve unusual is how it came to look this way. Long ago it was forest, but after the Second World War US forces stationed near Viernheim used the sandy ground as a tank training area. Heavy tracked vehicles stripped and churned the soil, kept trees from returning, and produced the warm, nutrient-poor, rapidly heating conditions that specialized sand species need. When military use ended in the early 1990s and the area was finally designated as a nature reserve in February 1998, conservationists had to actively maintain that openness to keep the dune grassland alive.
The reserve is now recognized as one of Hesse's most valuable dry sand sites because of its concentration of rare Red List species of spiders, beetles, bees, wasps, grasshoppers, reptiles, amphibians, and ground-nesting birds. It was named Geotope of the Year in 2007 within the Geo-Naturpark Bergstrasse-Odenwald. At the same time it is a popular local recreation area, requiring constant work to balance visiting pressure against the fragility of the habitat.
