Basic data: Nutrient-poor grassland in the Taunus area

Naturefund is planning to conserve a biodiverse nutrient-poor grassland in the Krebsbachtal in the Taunus. The impressive red-backed shrike finds ideal conditions here and can be found in great large numbers in the Krebsbachtal.

Conserve the environment in the uplands

The area we are intending to purchase for our environment covers an area of almost half a hectare (4,217 m²) and lies in the middle of the designated fauna-and-flora area "Krebsbachtal bei Ruppertshain". This nutrient-poor grassland inhabited by many different species used to be a very common sight twenty to thirty years ago. However, they have now become very rare. After they were converted through constant or previous ploughing or fertilisation, this has lead to a disappearance of many plant species.

Mosaic of biotopes

It is only thanks to conservationists, particularly our partner in this project, the Hessian Society for Ornithology and Nature Conservation (HGON), that it has been possible to conserve the 84 hectares or so of diverse countryside within the Krebsbachtal. It is interspersed with meadows, old orchards, hedges and small water bodies. A mosaic of different biotopes can be found here that offer a habitat to numerous rare and threatened animals and plants, such as the red-backed shrike for example.

Basic project data

Location

Kelkheim - between Fischbach and Ruppertshain in the Vordertaunus at a height of about 280 m above sea-level. NN, Hessen.

Size

4,217 m²

Fauna

Red-backed shrike, European green woodpecker, middle spotted woodpecker, European hare, chorthippus dorsatus, large marsh grasshopper, large gold grasshopper, two-coloured bush-cricket, bow-winged grasshopper, dusky large blue, scarce large blue, small heath, lesser marbled fritillary, small copper, meadow brown, pale clouded yellow.

Flora

Tall oat-grass, hedge bedstraw, rambling bellflower, meadow salsify, field wood-rush, spring sedge, catsear, imperforate St. John's wort, St Anthony's turnip, lady's bedstraw, quaking grass, meadow saxifrage, dyer's greenweed, betony, saw-wort, meadow oat-grass, small burnet, cowslip, mountain lungwort.

Special features

Nutrient-poor, biodiverse grasslands have become very rare. They represent a type of meadow that used to be ubiquitous in this part of the Vordertaunus until just a few decades ago, but nowadays has almost completely disappeared in many parts of the countryside. As these types of grassland started to disappear, many rare species have decreased in number, some even become extinct. The diverse flora that still exists in the Krebsbachtal is seeking to spread over the Taunus, which makes this area so valuable to us.

History

The Krebsbachtal near Ruppertshain is an ancient cultural landscape. Fields and grassland used to be prevalent in the Talaue. Since the 1900s these have increasingly been turned to orchards. DUring the last few decades, these have, however, been used more intensively. In the mid 1980s, HGON already started campaigning for the conservation of the unique environment in the Krebsbachtal... and successfully. In 1992 it was designated a nature reserve and in 2001 a Fauna-Flora-Habitat by the EU. Purchasing such areas is another valuable instrument for ensuring that the habitat diversity is maintained in a near-natural state and permanently safeguarded for the environment.

Partners

HGON e.V. is a partner of Naturefund. It will take care of and conserve the area as the proprietor in the long term.

Support concept

The area is to be mown once or twice a year as it has been by a locally resident farmer. Local HGON members shall be voluntary caretakers of the nature reserve in the Krebsbachtal and will regularly check on it to keep it in order. Get involved! Just 5 € will enable you to permanently safeguard land for our environment. Protect land directly for our environmentThe red-backed shrike aka the "butcher" birdThe playful butterflyLow in nutrients but rich in biodiversity: nutrient-poor grasslands