Echtenerzand

Near the village of Echten lies a beautiful nature reserve ‘Het Echtenerzand’, hidden in the Ruiner Forest. Stunning views in a setting of old juniper bushes and sea pines.

Het Echtenerzand is still an untouched piece of rugged landscape in Drenthe. Here, the atmosphere of the wild and empty Drenthe from almost a century ago can still be tasted a bit. You feel like you’re stepping back in time as you wander over the heath fields and the sand dune. What a contrast to the surrounding area, where from the 1930s onward, the rugged landscape was used for timber production for the mines of Limburg. Coniferous forests were established because the straight trunks were perfect for supporting the mine shafts. The coniferous trees have now partly given way to deciduous trees, creating a varied landscape. The nature here is incredible, as well as the silence. You walk along narrow, and sometimes very narrow, paths and roads with beautiful views over the heath and the pools along the way.

Middle Drenthe is rich in heath peat bogs, which often show vegetation of different kinds at short distances; this is in contrast to the somewhat larger raised bog areas on the flanks of the Drents highland. In the 19th century, there was a very large heath field here with a few moist spots. On the topographic map of 1912 (explored in 1900), a depression is indicated with a light marsh designation. In the early 20th century, peat was extracted from that depression, creating a body of water. Two ditches were dug for drainage at that time. During the establishment of the Ruinen Forestry in the 1920s and 1930s, the water body and the surrounding heath were spared. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a raised bog pond, parts of which were severely dried out (Dijksta et al. 1992). In the aerial photo from 1989, a dark zone (likely raised bog) is located around the water, and outside of it, a lighter zone (likely dominance of Molinea caerulea). In 1990, the drainage ditches were closed off with sods from a wide band around the pond. After that, the water level rose, and a sort of ring ditch around the bog was created. Due to the beautiful landscape, the area is also referred to as ‘Echtener Paradies’. Between 1990 and 2017, the Sphagnum cover in the raised bog increased from very little to more than 50% (EGG consult, 2017). The water and the bog are at about 9 m height. The area west and south of the pond is at about 8 m, and the drifting sand dune rises to 11 m. The drifting sand dune seems to be part of a ridge that runs from northeast to southwest through the forestry. Source: ECHTENERZAND - FROM BOG TO DUNE

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