The Witterveld

Centuries-old nature reserve

Waste and empty, that’s how the vast peat’s of Smilde to the South of Assen must have looked like. Heather and peat, as far as the eye reaches. The Wittelterveld is a remain of that vast nature area. Here was less peat to be found then in the rest of the area, this was because the peat layer was much thinner at this spot. The rest of the peat’s of Smilde are cultivated by now. Local farmers used parts of the Wittelterveld for centuries as farmland and to graze their cattle and sheep. In 1891 the Army came to Assen. The council of Assen bought “rough land ”from several farmers and loaned this land to the soldiers. The Army used this land as a training ground. In the North they build a shooting range and the rest of the area was used as a safety zone for this shooting range. When the council of Assen wouldn’t have loaned this useless ground to the Army, the Wittelterveld would have been cultivated to farm land. Nowadays it is one of the few extensive peat area’s in the Netherlands that “survived”. There were some activities by which the area was damaged. During the second world war there was dug a deep tank canal and a big trench system in the Wittelterveld. The nature reserve has also been used as a clay pigeon shooting range and as a glider airport over the years.

Management and conservation

Because of the valuable nature, the Wittelterveld was indicated as a protected nature monument on grounds of the nature protection law, by the ministry of agriculture, nature conservation and fishery. The council of Assen manages the nature monument ever since. First priority had the restoration of the water housekeeping in the area. Enough water of good quality is needed for the preservation of the peat and the wet heather. To achieve this the ditches and canals were filled up, so the rainwater will stay in the area as long as possible. The ground water will also flow to the lower parts of the area. Cattle and sheep do the daily management. They graze the area and by doing this the Bell Heath and Scotch Heather stay vital. Letting the cattle and sheep graze, provides that the grasses and shrub won’t get the chance to suppress the heather. Sometimes a part of the heather has to be turned over or mowed to give unique plant species like the little sundew or the swamp wolf claw a chance to germinate. By all this measures the administrator takes care of the preservation of this unique nature reserve.

Unique nature

Enclosed by sand ridges lies a living peat area. An impermeable layer in the underground sees to it that the rainwater can not flow away. Also rainwater flows from the sand ridges to the lower peat area. For these reasons the peat area stays soaking wet. This is the environment of peat moss, the building material of peat. Bog Orchid absorbs extremely much water. The plant keeps growing at the top and dies at the bottom. The dead plant remains form the peat. there are also growing lots of other unique plants in the peat layer, like the Roundleaf Sundew, lavender-heather and Cranberry. There are two natural peat lakes in the reserve. This kind of lakes are very seldom in the Netherlands. On the change of the wet peat to the dryer heather, also live lots of plants and animals. Here you can find the Marsh Club moss, Marsh gentian, Bell Heath, White Beak-sedge. The Alcon Blue is a butterfly that only lies her eggs on the Marsh gentian. The higher parts of the Wittelterveld are coloured purple in the late summer by the blooming Scotch Heather. A lot of insects like bees and bumblebees flourish on the nectar of the Scotch Heather. The great variation of the Wittelterveld offers space for lots of brood birds like the Stonechat and the Buzzard. Heather and peat form a fine environment for reptiles an amphibians like the Viper, Moor Frog and the Alpine newt.

Still the biggest part of the Wittelterveld does service as a safety zone for the military shooting range. This is why this part is not open for public. This would be perilous.