The Maten Diepenbeek

Start and parking: Havenlaan Diepenbeek

GPS recording of September 25, 2022

Ideal for birdwatchers: De Maten Diepenbeek

Nature reserve De Maten, in the province of Limburg is one of the oldest nature reserves in Flanders. The walking routes run between the heath and along ponds with swaying reed collars. Natuurpunt has an offer of different distances and three starting places. I made a 13 km walk with some mixing

Real water rats will immediately feel at home here. In de Maten you will find a piece of authentic wine landscape with beautiful ponds.... Complete with 'heads and tails', as it used to be in De Wijers.

The name Maten is related to the English "meadows". Just like Kiewit and the Munsterbos, the area is part of De Wijers, a pond complex on the transition from the Kempens Plateau to the Demer valley. On the poor sandy soils of the Kempen, fish farming was a source of extra protein. Already in the Middle Ages, series of ponds were built via simple cross dikes in the valley. The overflow of one pond simultaneously forms the supply for the next pond. For the ponds in De Maten, the Stiemerbeek valley was dammed several times. As fish farming intensified in the first half of the twentieth century, many ponds received separate indulgences. In De Maten you will find a mix of both systems. Water management is therefore a complicated part of the management of one of the oldest nature reserves in Flanders.