Niep Nature Reserve

The area follows the lower terrace channel of the Niepkanal along with its terrace edges. The Niep runs northwards through the lowland, is canalised along its entire length and dammed in the southern section. The part protected here belongs to a longer canal system that continues beyond the district boundary as far as Krefeld and into the district of Wesel. Along its course, a chain of ponds, the so-called Kuhlen, lines up one after another – former, man-made peat cuttings that today partly serve as gardens.

The grassland of the lowland is structured by hedges, groups of trees and individual trees, with mighty old trees still standing in places. Riparian woody vegetation of alders, ashes and willows with interspersed, partly overgrown pollarded trees lines the canal. At Selzer Dyk, flood grassland has established itself in moist hollows. In the north, where the Niepkanal transitions into the Großer Parsick, a sedge-rich silting-up zone with Black alder has developed. The Yellow water-lily (Nuphar lutea) is here – as at the Krickenbeck Lakes – presumably regarded as an autochthonous, originally native species.