The meadow
The land that Naturefund, together with HGON has bought is situated in a district of Frankfurt am Main next to the river Sulzbach. With a little luck and the cooperation from some neighbours a small meadow will grow here.The 297 square meters of land is about 50 meters long and almost six meters wide and is situated along a narrow tarmac path. To the north-west and south-east of the land there are extensively cultivated areas with old high-stemmed fruit trees. These are predominantly apple, pear, cherry and plum trees, partially surrounded by blackberry and elderberry bushes. To the north-east of the land, the river Sulzbach flows for a distance of around 16 meters, and the south-west borders the city limits of Sossenheim.
Meadows consist of small groves that flank a body of water, for example willow groves, rowan berry bushes, black elder, willow and ash trees. Around ten percent of Germany was once covered with natural meadows and riparian forests, today this is only two percent.
Eighty percent of all riparian forests have been drained
Two thirds of all German plant communities occur in riparian forests. However, during the last centuries around eighty percent of the riparian forests in Germany have been cleared and drained.Despite these profound changes the existing meadows are still important spaces for the survival of endangered species and for migratory animals such as birds, bats and roaming insects that use these areas as resting places on their travels.