The Wildsee, occasionally also called the ''Seefelder See'' ("Lake Seefeld"), is a lake near the
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n resort of
Seefeld in Tirol
Seefeld in Tirol is an old farming village, now a major tourist resort, in Innsbruck-Land District in the Austrian state of Tyrol with a local population of 3,312 (as of 1 January 2013). The village is located about northwest of Innsbruck on a pl ...
at the foot of the
Gschwandtkopf (1,495 m). It has an area of 6.1 hectares and a maximum depth of 5.1 metres. The majority of the lake belongs to the municipality of Seefeld, its south and west shores are part of
Reith bei Seefeld.
The lake is fed from the Haglbach, which rises below the
col of the Seefelder Joch and empties into the lake in the southeast, and water from the bog of ''Reither Moor'' and other smaller springs. Its catchment area is just under 7 km². It is drained northwards by the Seebach which empties into the
River Isar
The Isar is a river in Tyrol, Austria, and Bavaria, Germany, which is not navigable for watercraft above raft size. Its source is in the Karwendel range of the Alps in Tyrol; it enters Germany near Mittenwald and flows through Bad Tölz, Mun ...
.
On the east shore of the lake are small beds of
reed
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* ...
and
sedge
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...
; on the west shore
mixed forest
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These fo ...
runs down to the lake. South of the lake is the ''Reither Moor'', a
raised bog
Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation (ombrot ...
resulting from the
silting up
Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...
of the Wildsee in which
mountain pine
''Pinus mugo'', known as bog pine, creeping pine, dwarf mountain pine, mugo pine, mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, or Swiss mountain pine, is a species of conifer, native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe and S ...
trees grow. The south shore and the ''Reither Moor'' are a nature reserve.
The Wildsee probably gave the village of Seefeld, first mentioned in 1022, its name. Emperor
Maximilian I used it for
fish farming
upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Fish farming or ...
and had
lamprey
Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are an ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes , placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like s ...
s introduced, which is why the lake also bore the name ''Lampretensee''. The breeding of this fish, a prized delicacy at that time, only lasted for a few decades, however. Today, the Wildsee is a popular
bathing lake
A bathing lake is a natural or artificial lake that is used for public bathing and swimming. In the water, bathers mostly remain close to the shore and use the area for recreational purposes, such as sport, games and sunbathing. In Europe, because ...
with two beaches. According to
limnological
Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.
The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characterist ...
research, the lake has a low to medium nutrient content. Due to the bog-like character of the lake, visibility is only about 1 to 3 metres. In 2013 the water quality was classified as excellent.
The Wildsee is threatened by silting up as a result of the
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
transported to it by the Haglbach. In future a pond will be excavated east of ''Innsbrucker Straße'' in order to trap the sediment. There is also discussion about enlarging the lake.
[Josef Hornsteiner: , plateauzeitung.at dated 4 February 2014, archived b]
original
on 19 April 2014.
Gallery
File:Seefeld Wildsee Winter.JPG, The frozen Wildsee in winter
File:Wildsee Seefeld.JPG, The Wildsee with the Gschwandtkopf behind
Literature and external links
* Notburga Wahlmüller: ''Beiträge zur Vegetationsgeschichte Tirols V: Nordtiroler Kalkalpen.'' In: Berichte des Naturwissenschaftlich-Medizinischen Vereins in Innsbruck, Vol. 72 (1985), pp. 101–144
pdf
Tyrolean reserves: Reither Moor
References
Lakes of Tyrol (state)
LWildsee
Seefeld in Tirol
{{Tyrol-geo-stub