Top 17 Natural Monuments around Balge

It's wonderful when the larkspurs make a guest appearance on the Waldbühne stage, delighting the audience with their splendid blossoms. The performances are free, absolutely worth seeing, and—as every year—scheduled to run until the end of April.

Great bike tour

Beautiful cycle path through the nature reserve on the Weser. The marsh landscape is characterized by regular flooding and is a habitat for many different animal species.

The place on the “Große Aue” has been the location of the mill since 1298. At this time the mill served purely as a grain mill for grinding grain. In 1859 a sawmill was added to the grain mill, and the floodplain now powered four mill wheels. A comprehensive renovation took place in 1913, during which the water wheels were replaced by a turbine. After mill operations stopped in the 1970s, the turbine continues to run and generate electricity today.

The "Drakenburger Marsch" still shows clear traces of the river bend marsh, a form of land use that was once typical for the entire Wesermarsch. In addition to its cultural and historical significance, this type of landscape, which has become rare, offers a habitat and retreat for vulnerable and endangered animal and plant species and communities due to its structural diversity. The species-rich, well-preserved hedges and their herbaceous fringe are of very high ecological importance as a habitat for numerous, sometimes rare, vertebrates, birds and small mammals. The grassland, which is partly characterized by flood troughs and is regularly flooded, represents an important refuge for organisms bound to temporary bodies of water and offers resting and feeding opportunities, especially for Nordic birds migrating after floods. The remaining wet grassland is also important as a food habitat for the white stork. https://www.lk-nienburg.de/portal/seiten/naturschutzgebiet-drakenburger-marsch-901001074-21500.html

In the years after the Second World War, everything was done to turn the Große Aue into a canal-like river and thus to achieve a flood-free river course. In the 1980s, initiatives in the Minden-Lübbecke area led to the decision to renaturate the river landscape. The landscape, which has become species-poor as a result of the expansion, should recover. Alluvial forests, hedges and the typical plants and animals should be given a habitat again. When the ground-breaking ceremony for renaturation took place in 1989, this project was unique in North Rhine-Westphalia. The monotonous river bed and its up to 300 m wide side spaces were redesigned to form a near-natural meadow landscape. Approximately 200 hectares of flood plains have been reclaimed. The technically upgraded barrel was largely preserved. At the same time, a new body of water was created that flows into the old course at several points. From today's perspective, a species-rich animal and plant world was created without flood disasters being expected. Source: Wikipedia

They come from the Weser and have a mysterious origin. The Water and Shipping Office is constantly removing heavy stones weighing more than three tons from the river bed with their floating grab, but it doesn't take long for some to "grow" back. The hydraulic engineers are faced with a puzzle. More boulders (natural monuments) are located a little further north on the Weser Cycle Path at the tip of the Weser Peninsula and just before Nienburg Harbour. Many farmers also experience this as a problem on their fields. Every year they "harvest" stones from their fields, which seem to grow back like potatoes. With regard to this phenomenon, the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology in Hanover refers to the occurrence of cryoturbation, a general term for all movements caused by the effects of frost in the ground. Source: https://www.mittelweser-tourismus.de/poi/nienburgs-findlinge-1/

The Drakenburger Marsch is a nature reserve in the Lower Saxony municipalities of Drakenburg in the joint municipality of Heemsen and the city of Nienburg/Weser in the Nienburg/Weser district. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakenburger_Marsch