Increase of water levels in the southern Lower Oder Valley National Park

More water for nature and biodiversity: By adjusting the pumping station operations in the Lunow-Stolpe dry polder, water levels in the southern national park are rising. This benefits valuable wetland habitats, meadow-nesting birds, and the landscape, which is increasingly suffering from the effects of climate change.

At the initiative of the National Park Administration, the pumping station operations in the Lunow-Stolpe dry polder have now been changed: The lower water authority of the Uckermark district, at the request of the State Environmental Agency as the operator of the pumping station, has approved an increase of the switch-on and switch-off levels by 30 cm each.

The Lunow-Stolpe polder does not belong entirely to the national park; the southern part contains arable farmland that also depends on the operation of the Stolpe pumping station. For several years, however, a decline in agricultural yields, the drying up of ditches and oxbow lakes, and problems with providing sufficient drinking water for grazing animals have been observed. The massive impacts of man-made climate change are now visible and tangible for everyone in the Lower Oder Valley!

The National Park Administration has noted a change in habitats. The range of species is shifting from those typical of wet meadows toward species typical of mesic meadows—a reaction to falling water levels, especially in summer. The now improved hydrological conditions in the Lunow-Stolpe dry polder will also benefit meadow-nesting birds. Photo evaluations document the extreme decline of open water areas during the breeding season. The shallow water areas that were once widespread in spring and early summer are an important breeding habitat for species such as lapwing, snipe, and redshank. The water levels resulting from the changed pumping station operations are now recorded weekly at six gauge stations distributed throughout the polder.