Fewer dead animals and more peace. Forest ranger Martin Snip hopes that the closure of the road through the Fochteloërveen will improve the flora and fauna in the nature reserve. From today, motor vehicles are not allowed to drive on a stretch of asphalt approximately one kilometer long for two years.
The road is closed with a barrier on both sides. Motorists can still reach the parking lots in the area. Anyone who wants to enter the nature reserve can do so by walking or cycling.
“It is unique in the Netherlands,” says forest ranger Snip in the NOS Radio 1 Journaal about the measure in the area on the border of Drenthe and Friesland. “It’s not often you hear of a road being closed. I’m glad that the municipality (Ooststellingwerf, ed.) has recognized the importance of it. Moreover, motorists only have to take a three-minute detour. So the consequences are not too bad.”
Motor vehicles are not allowed to cross the stretch between the Bonghaar car park and a former work shed of Natuurmonumenten. The road would be bad for nature and the water in the Fochteloërveen, the municipality says. In her eyes, the roadway is an obstacle for cranes, snakes, frogs and toads, among others. Every year, animals are killed because they want to cross the road.
“It is also an area with raised bogs,” Snip adds. “There are very few of these in the Netherlands. Raised bogs are dependent on rainwater and we have to try to retain that. The road means that we are less able to do this. On either side of the asphalt you can see that the raised bogs are developing more poorly. This is about a traditional Dutch landscape and that is why we really do our best to keep it standing.”
Snip does not think that nature will suddenly change very much due to the two-year closure. “But I do expect fewer dead snakes and more peace.”