Years of dredging have cleaned up the Ilperveld, a peat meadow area located near Landsmeer just north of Amsterdam. The site is the largest nature reserve managed by Landschap Noord-Holland.
For centuries, the land served as a dumping ground, leaving ditches filled with urban waste and contaminated silt. Workers had to remove the toxic sludge to clean the waterways.
Vegetation returning to dredge depots
The excavated sludge was placed in storage depots, where plant life is now taking hold. Willows are shooting up on the old dredge material, while purple loosestrife and fireweed bloom along the ditch edges.
Forest ranger Melchior Sissing explained that navigating the area still requires a boat, just as local farmers once did to milk and move their cattle.
Crews will soon mow parts of the depots to encourage a large reed bed to develop. Conservationists hope the reeds will provide a nesting spot for the bittern.
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