The Strabrechtse Heide is a natural

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

land area about 1500 ha in size, located in the municipalities of

Heeze-Leende Heeze-Leende () is a municipality in the southern Netherlands, near Eindhoven. It is known for Heeze Castle (''Kasteel Heeze''). The spoken language is "Heeze-en-Leendes", a distinct dialect within the East Brabantian dialect group and is very si ...

Someren Someren () is a municipality and town in the province of North Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. As of January 2019, the municipality had 19,322 inhabitants, with over half of the population residing in the town. Someren, just south of Helmond ...

and

Geldrop-Mierlo Geldrop-Mierlo () is a municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. The municipality was created from the two former municipalities of Geldrop and Mierlo on 1 January 2004. Villages Geldrop-Mierlo had a population of ...

, in

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

, 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 ...

. It is largely under the care of

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 ...

. In July 2010, around 200

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s of the area were damaged or destroyed in a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

that took over a week to put out.

Location and surroundings

In the northwest, the Strabrechtse Heide passes into the Braakhuizense Heide, which is owned by the foundation Brabants Landschap. Near Heeze, the healthlands and fields pass into the Herbertusbossen (also owned by Brabants Landschap) and the grounds of

Heeze Castle Heeze Castle ( nl, Kasteel Heeze) is situated in the Netherlands, south of Eindhoven. It used to be the centre of the seigneury of Heeze, Leende and Zesgehuchten, part of the Duchy of Brabant. In the Middle Ages, it was owned by the de Horne famil ...

. The area partially falls under the

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

and the

Birds Directive The Birds Directive (formally known as Council Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds) is the oldest piece of EU legislation on the environment and one of its cornerstones which was unanimously adopted in April 1979 as the Dire ...

of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. In 2006, the Strabrechtse Heide, along with a part of the valley of the

Kleine Dommel The Kleine Dommel (small Dommel) or Rul is a Stream, brook in the Campine and Meierij van 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. History A brook with water mills The Kleine Dommel was originally a brook, meaning that it could be forded in many place ...

stream, was assigned as

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 ...

area under the Natura 2000 area name "Strabrechtse Heide & Beuven". The eastern part of the area that lies in the municipality of Someren was originally called ''Lieropsche Heide'', after the village of

Lierop Lierop is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Someren, about 7 km south of Helmond. History The village was first mentioned in 1155 as Lirdob. The etymology is unknown. Lierop develop alon ...

. In the nineteenth century, both it and the Strabrechtse Heide proper were part of a larger heathland area between the valleys of the Kleine Dommel and the Aa rivers. Towards the north, the heath extended to

Nuenen Nuenen () is a town in the municipality of Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten in the Netherlands. From 1883 to 1885, Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen. In 1944, the town was a battle scene during Operation Market Garden. The local dialect i ...

(there called ''Molenheide'', ''Collsche Heide'' and ''Refelingse Heide''). To the south of the road between Heeze and Someren, the ''Somerensche Heide'' extended to the Weerterbosch and

Groote Peel De Groote Peel National Park is a national park in the De Peel, a region in the southeast of the Netherlands on the border between the provinces of Limburg and North Brabant. It has a size of 13.4 km² and preserves a peat bog that has rema ...

areas. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the heaths to the north of the Strabrechtse Heide were converted into forest or agricultural land. The construction of the A67 motorway separated the Strabrechtse Heide from the forest area between Geldrop and Mierlo. Plans to construct the A2 motorway to the east of

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Common Heather ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wide ...

and

Common Juniper ''Juniperus communis'', the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae. An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the c ...

are found in the dry areas, and the more marshy wetlands are home to ''

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * ''Erica'' (spider), a jumping spider genus * Eric ...

'',

Purple Moor Grass ''Molinia caerulea'', known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid so ...

Bog Myrtle ''Myrica gale'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of Japan, North Korea, Russia, mainland Europe, the British Isles and parts of northern North America, in Canada and the United States. Common names include ...

and Marsh Gentian. The spread of grass across the area is countered by allowing a flock of

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

to graze, by mowing and sod cutting. The heath area is surrounded by forests. The transition area towards the valley of the Kleine Dommel has several unusual forms of plant life and is also important for many animal species.

Fire

On 2 July 2010, a wildfire started in the northern part of the Strabrechtse Heide, after several weeks of hot and dry summer weather. The fire was initially fought by hundreds of firefighters, assisted by 100 more from the

Dutch Military The Netherlands Armed Forces ( nl, Nederlandse krijgsmacht) are the military, military services of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The core of the armed forces consists of the four service branches: the Royal Netherlands Navy (), the Royal Nethe ...

. Because of the fire, the A67 motorway had to be closed off for a short period. The roadway was at one point completely covered in smoke and the flames were even able to reach across to the median and then to other side of the road, igniting the dry grass there too in a few places. The fire took several days to master, and over a week to put out completely, and destroyed about 200 hectares of forest and heathland, over ten percent of the total area.

Insect reserve

Since April 2012, the Stabrechtse heide has been made a nature reserve specifically for

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

.EOS magazine, April 2012 reporting on Stabrechtse heide as insect reserve]

References

{{coord, 51, 24, 0, N, 5, 37, 3, E, region:NL_type:landmark, display=title Geography of North Brabant Protected areas of the Netherlands Geldrop-Mierlo Heeze-Leende