Where the storks live

A special irrigation concept allows for a regular spectacle in the Southern Palatinate irrigating the Queich river meadows around Bellheim according to a centuries-old tradition, which has recently been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. It transforms the area into the largest breeding ground for storks in Rhineland-Palatinate.

It takes just a few simple moves for Pirmin Hilsendegen to open the small clasp. He pulls on one of the sliders and the water gushes out flowing in swirls that ripple on the surface of the water. The swirls are considerable. If you fell into one of the channels here, you wouldn’t get out so easily, because despite the water currents’ calming and even gentle appearance, they have an unexpected amount of power.

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Pirmin is out and about with Esther Grüne this morning. Together, they walk past mills, flooded green spaces and forests along the Queichwiesen-Rundwanderweg hiking trail loop, which enables one to explore a wonderful natural area—and learn a lot about the history of the Southern Palatinate.

Hardly anyone else knows this region as well as Pirmin does. Born in Ottersheim in 1958, the now retired secondary school teacher grew up in a family of farmers. “My father used to go with two cows into the fields here when I was a child,” he recalls. In the 1970s, however, dairy farming became less and less profitable. And with every farm that disappeared, knowledge also got lost—not least that of Queich meadow irrigation.

“That’s why we founded a support group in 1996 to restore the irrigation system,” says Pirmin, who regularly organises information events and guided tours and also helps out when the irrigation system requires it during the Wässertage days. Farmers, conservationists and representatives of the municipalities along the Queich river come together in the support group, coordinated by the municipality of Ottersheim. Primin was committed to developing the hiking trail loop together with Esther, chairwoman of the Südpfalz-Tourismus association. Today, they start at the Oldtimerscheune barn in Ottersheim, one of seven villages where the old irrigation system has been preserved. The meadows in the areas around Hochstadt, Zeiskam, Lustadt, Landau, Offenbach, Knittelsheim, Bellheim and Ottersheim are regularly irrigated—only by means of weirs and canals and thanks to gravity.

Pirmin and Esther first walk to the Ottersheim dividing weir, which has existed since the 18^th century, possibly even since the 16^th. “The weir ensures that the Spiegelbach brook has a constant supply of water,” says Pirmin, former biology and theology teacher, for whom Queich meadow irrigation brings together ecology and cultural history. “Even the Romans knew this technology.” The Prince-electors ran the large Friedrichsbühl water and hunting lodge, not far from here in the Bellheimer Wald forest. Only ruins of the castle remain—and the imposing entrance gate, which is now part of the Historical Museum of the Palatinate. One day, augmented reality could perhaps help bring the lodge’s former grandeur back to life, at least virtually. Until then, the deserted village reminds us that horse farming was an important factor in developing the irrigation system. The system of irrigation ditches was developed during the electoral period not only to secure the farmers’ harvests, but also to provide fodder for the elector’s military horses. The water level of the Queich is raised with the help of weirs on a regular basis: at the Wässertage days in April and May as well as in July and August. The water from the river is then directed in a slight gradient into the ditches. The integrated clasps are closed and cause the water to overflow the ditches flooding the meadows after a while.

What’s happening here is physics in action

Esther Grüne

This creates a mosaic of briefly flooded areas, some more than others, leading to countless storks inhabiting the meadows. “There are ideal feeding conditions for them here,” explains the tourism officer. “My area of responsibility turns into a buffet for red-legged creatures coming over from the nearby Baden and Alsace during these days. The last stork had been sighted here in 1973 until “a major reintroduction project was launched in 1997. Some 90 stork pairs, coming also from Baden and France, now use the area again to breed.”

If you want to explore the Queich meadows on your own, you can start at the Rheinland-Pfälzisches Storchenzentrum (Rhineland-Palatinate storks educational centre) in Bornheim. The centre not only explains a lot about the long-legged animals, but also demonstrates irrigation technology using an interactive model. The nine-kilometre hiking trail loop through the meadows along the Queich river starts at the Bellheim cemetery. However, you could also start at the Oldtimerscheune barn in Ottersheim, at the Zeiskamer or Knittelsheimer Mühle mills or at the Queichwiesen-Schleife loop located at the Schützenhaus tavern in Bellheim. If you set off on the Wässertage days, you should wear waterproof shoes, because it doesn’t just get wet on the meadows, but also along the paths from time to time.

A few storks are foraging in the meadows, which are full of earthworms, insects, mice, moles and frogs. “Rare insect species such as the dusky large blue and the Lauchschrecke grasshopper are also spotted in the alternatingly wet areas,” says Pirmin. The Queich meadows are a bird sanctuary and feature rare plants as well—such as the tubular water-dropwort. The area used for irrigation between Landau and Germersheim covers around 450 hectares in total. The hiking trail loop takes in some beautiful sites there, passing picturesque watercourses and mills along the way. Granting it the status of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2023, “UNESCO has recognised the Southern Palatinate irrigation concept together with comparable projects in Franconia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands,” says Esther. She wants to raise awareness of the region and the project “holistically,” as she puts it, and beyond municipal and district boundaries. After all, the unique irrigation system brings together long-standing tradition with the future and history with nature conservation.

www.queichwiesen.de

www.queicherleben.de