One of France's largest alluvial floodplain forests, where ancient rivers, marshlands, and meadow landscapes interweave on the Alsatian plain.
Réserve naturelle régionale du Ried de Sélestat, l'Ill*Wald
The Réserve naturelle régionale du Ried de Sélestat, l'Ill*Wald protects one of the largest remaining alluvial forests in France, located on the Alsatian plain between the Vosges mountains and the Rhine. Stretching across roughly 1,855 hectares of the Sélestat commune, the reserve encompasses the Illwald forest, a dense mosaic of oak, ash, and alder woodland, together with wet meadows, reedbeds, and flood-prone marsh habitats that are characteristic of the Grand Ried landscape.
The reserve is threaded by the Ill river and its many distributaries, forming more than 130 km of waterways and ditches that swell during winter floods. This hydrology, together with a shallow and stable phreatic aquifer, sustains a habitat mosaic of more than 30 distinct ecosystems, from alder-ash swamp woodland to sedge beds, tall-herb fen, and watercourses of contrasting temperature and clarity.
Established as a voluntary reserve in 1995 and reclassified as a regional nature reserve in 2013, the Ill*Wald combines ecological, hydrological, and landscape protection with a strong educational and recreational role for the nearby town of Sélestat. It is ranked among the five largest regional nature reserves in France.
