Duvenstedter Brook

Summary

Covering around 780 hectares, Duvenstedter Brook is the city's second largest nature reserve. Together with the Wohldorf Forest, Klein-Hansdorfer Brook and Hunau Lowlands nature reserves, it forms a single landscape unit and is also the largest nature reserve complex in the Hamburg area.

Description

Thanks to the diverse habitats with vegetation typical of the location, the flora in the area is very rich, with around 400 species. Particularly noteworthy are the extremely nutrient-poor peat bogs with their trample-sensitive sphagnum moss cushions, cotton grass, white beak-sedge, cranberries, bog-rosemary and sundews. In addition to the moorland forests and unspoilt oak-hornbeam forests, the riparian forests slowly developing in the south along the Ammersbek river offer a varied sight. The largest mammals here are foxes, martens, polecats, weasels, badgers, roe deer, wild boar, fallow deer and red deer, as well as the invasive species raccoons, raccoon dogs and nutria. The Duvenstedt deer population (which includes the largest specimens in northern Germany) descends from deer that were released into the wild in the 1930s for hunting purposes. Thanks to improved protection measures, cranes have been able to resettle here since the early 1980s. In 2022, 31 breeding or territorial pairs were identified in Duvenstedter Brook and the surrounding area, raising at least 16 young birds. The area is closely monitored as part of crane conservation efforts. Since large areas of meadows and forests in the surrounding area have been drained, Duvenstedter Brook also serves as a refuge for numerous birds that inhabit wet habitats, such as common snipe, water rail, Eurasian woodcock and bluethroat.