The Oostvaardersplassen () is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological o ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, managed by the ''

Staatsbosbeheer Staatsbosbeheer, founded in 1899, is a Dutch government organization for forestry and the management of nature reserves. Staatsbosbeheer currently oversees over 250,000 hectares of land in the Netherlands. Usually this land is open to the public ...

'' (state forestry service). Covering about in the province of Flevoland, it is an experiment in

rewilding Rewilding may refer to: *Rewilding (conservation biology), the return of habitats to a natural state **Rewilding Europe, a programme to do so in Europe *** Pleistocene rewilding, a form of species reintroduction **Rewilding Institute, an organiz ...

.Oostvaardersplassen is discussed, for example, in

George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is a British writer known for his environmental and political activism. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and is the author of a number of books. Monbiot grew up in Oxfordsh ...

's book '' Feral: searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding'' (2013). While being in favour of rewilding, Monbiot has doubts about this site's lack of tree cover and of predators. It is in a

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

created in 1968; by 1989, its ecological interest had resulted in its being declared a

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed in ...

wetland. It became part of Nieuw Land National Park when that was established in 2018.

Geography

The Oostvaardersplassen are located in the municipality of

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

, between the towns of Lelystad and

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands, located about 20 km ...

, in the province of

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and youngest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

in the

. The area of is situated on the shore of the

Markermeer The Markermeer () is a lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland, and its smaller and larger neighbors, the IJmeer and IJsselmeer. A shallow lake at 3 to 5 m in depth, matching the reclaimed land to its west, ...

in the center of the

Flevopolder The Flevopolder is an island polder forming the bulk of Flevoland, a province of the Netherlands. Created by land reclamation, its northeastern part was drained in 1955 and the remainder—the southwest—in 1968. Boundaries Unlike other major p ...

. The Oostvaardersplassen can be divided into a wet area in the northwest and a dry area in the southeast.

Wet and dry areas

In the wet area along the

, there are large

reedbed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

s on clay, where moulting geese often feed. This area is also home to

great cormorant The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...

common spoonbill The Eurasian spoonbill (''Platalea leucorodia''), or common spoonbill, is a wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The genus name ''Platalea'' is from Latin and means "broad", referring to the distinctive shape of the b ...

great egret The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and ...

white-tailed eagle The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla'') is a very large species of sea eagle widely distributed across temperate Palearctic, Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which includes other diur ...

and

Eurasian bittern The Eurasian bittern or great bittern (''Botaurus stellaris'') is a wading bird in the bittern subfamily (Botaurinae) of the heron family Ardeidae. There are two subspecies, the northern race (''B. s. stellaris'') breeding in parts of Europe and ...

, among many other animals. Oostvaardersplassen is a

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and cert ...

for birdlife. Before the establishment of the reserve, the dry area was a nursery for

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

trees, and in the first year hundreds of seedlings could be found on each square metre. This led to concern that a dense woodland would develop, significantly reducing the value of the habitat for water birds. To avoid this, the park's managers brought in a number of large herbivores to keep the area more open, including

Konik The Konik or Polish Konik, pl, konik polski, is a Polish List of horse breeds, breed of pony. There are semi-feral populations in some regions. They are usually dun gene, mouse dun or primitive markings, striped dun in color. The Bilgoray, p ...

ponies,

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

and

Heck cattle Heck cattle are a hardy breed of domestic cattle. These cattle are the result of an attempt by Heinz and Lutz Heck to breed back the extinct aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') from modern aurochs-derived cattle in the 1920s and 1930s. Controver ...

. These large grazing animals are kept out in the open all year round without supplemental feeding for the winter and early spring, and are allowed to behave as wild animals (without, for example, for now,

castrating Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceu ...

males). The ecosystem developing under their influence is thought to resemble those that would have existed on European river banks and deltas before human disturbance. However, there is some controversy about how natural the ecosystem is, as it lacks top predators.

Large herbivores

Before they were driven to extinction, large herbivores in this part of Europe included the

tarpan The term tarpan (''Equus ferus ferus'') refers to free-ranging horses of the Russian steppe from the 18th to the 20th century. It is generally unknown whether those horses represented genuine wild horses, feral domestic horses or hybrids. The las ...

(wild horse),

wisent The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

(European bison),

and

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocen ...

(wild cattle). The tarpan and aurochs are extinct, but Konik ponies and Heck cattle are able to act as functional equivalents, occupying a similar ecological niche. The only native large herbivores now missing from Oostvaardersplassen are the elk (''Alces alces)'', the

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

and the wisent. There is a chance that the wild boar will find its way naturally from the

Veluwe The Veluwe () is a forest-rich ridge of hills (1100 km2) in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes, including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts. The Ve ...

Management

The reserve is the subject of decades of management reports and protests against the large reported number of grazers dying by starvation or shot to death, while the animals are kept behind a fence and cannot migrate. During a particularly harsh winter in 2005, many animals in the Oostvaardersplassen died of starvation, leading to public outcry against alleged animal cruelty and leading to the culling strategy. In the winter of 2017–2018, almost 3.300 deer, horses and cattle starved to death dividing the Dutch public and leading to demonstrations and individuals feeding hay to the animals despite police arrests. The Province asked the Van Geel Commission to write a policy which was presented in April and approved on 11 July 2018. This Van Geel report advised to manage the terrain instead of rewilding. The consequence is a reduction of the numbers of remaining animals either by replacing or shooting which led to another outburst of protests and court cases. Mass mortalities were likely also caused by failure to connect the reserve to the

nearby due to conflicts with farmers and a lack of political support, abandonment of due to political transition, and failure to introduce large predators.

Future development

In many ways the Oostvaardersplassen is an isolated area; it is in a polder and there are currently no

corridor Corridor or The Corridor may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Corridor'' (1968 film), a 1968 Swedish drama film * ''The Corridor'' (1995 film), a 1995 Lithuanian drama film * ''The Corridor'' (2010 film), a 2010 Canadia ...

s connecting it to other nature reserves. The "Ecological Main Structure" plan proposes connections between nature reserves in the Netherlands, calling for a corridor to be created toward nearby . The resulting network, called ''Oostvaardersland'', would be part of

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...

, the European-wide network of habitats to which Oostvaardersplassen belongs. The creation of Oostvaardersland will allow seasonal small scale migration and take some strain off the big grazers in winter. In the summer, Oostvaardersplassen will offer rich grazing and the sea winds will keep biting insects at bay, in the winter, the Horsterwold will offer protection from cold winds and supply browse. Oostvaardersland will comprise a total area of . Furthermore, there is an option for a connection to the Veluwe forest. Eventually this could allow wild animals to move to and from Germany. Oostvaardersland was expected to be finished by 2014. However, the project ran into financial and political troubles. In 2012 the creation of , the 7 × 1 mi connecting corridor between Oostvaardersplassen and the Horsterwold, was stopped, and four members of the regional parliament resigned. The government then planned to sell back the property to the previous owners for less money than it originally paid for the property; according to European nature laws it would then have to turn other lands into wilderness areas to compensate for the loss of the Oostvaarderswold nature area. As above-mentioned, the plan to connect to the veluwe in

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

also failed. Image:Koniks3.JPG, Konik ponies Image:GroteGrazers.JPG, A Heck bull amongst a herd of Konik ponies Image:Heckrund3.JPG, Young Heck cow with calves File:Edelhert.jpg, A red deer

References

External links

* {{in lang, nl}
Oostvaardersplassen
at the website of

Birdwatching sites in the Netherlands Ecological experiments Geography of Flevoland Important Bird Areas of the Netherlands Lelystad Nature reserves in the Netherlands Ramsar sites in the Netherlands Rewilding Special Protection Areas in the Netherlands Tourist attractions in Flevoland Natura 2000 in the Netherlands