Weilbacher Gravel Pits

When the "Reconstruction of Kiesgrubenlandschaft Weilbach mbH GRKW" society was founded at the beginning of the 1980s, the awareness of ecology on the doorstep was just beginning to awaken and many citizens were skeptical. Amazed, the visitors learn how nature recaptures piece by piece habitat. In a contribution to the large-format illustrated book "The Regional Park RheinMain" Wolfgang Knoll writes about the Weilbach nature reserve: "Dry and wet in the narrowest area next to each other, that's the secret of the enormous biodiversity in this former gravel pit".

In addition to barren wasteland, ponds, marshes and lakes open up. Habitat specialists, who have no chance in the otherwise monotonous cultural landscape, find their chance here. If the diggers continue to snatch about 200,000 tons of gravel from the earth each year and leave new holes, then the "after" is already tapped. The society, which is also majority shareholder of the Regionalpark RheinMain Pilot GmbH, determines before the first excavator bite, which after the Dismantling with the terrain happens.