The marsh - its use, nature and culture

Living by the wadden sea - before

THE MARSH - ITS USE, NATURE & CULTURE GOD CREATED THE WORLD - BUT MAN CREATED THE COAST

The grassy marsh is well suited for animal husbandry.

The marshland in the Danish Wadden Sea area is a dynamic landscape that has been subjected to huge changes - at the hand of nature and man, both.

The marshland has been called ”The gift of the ocean” since it is born of the Wadden Sea dynamic where the tide, twice a day, carries and deposits sediments that with time form new land. The marsh is known by its flat, grass-covered landscape that forms the transition between the sandy Geest in the east and the Wadden in the west.

The large marshland areas along the Danish Wadden Sea are Darummarsken, Tjæreborgmarsken, Ribemarsken, Rejsbymarsken, Ballummarsken and Tøndermarsken.

Settlements

The marsh is very fertile land and in the distant past attracted people who decided to settle there. Several places along the coast it is possible to find traces of early settlements such as Hjemsted Banke near Ballummarsken that was settled in 500 AD. The most northern area is Ballummarsken by Misthusum where, later, terps were established in the marsh itself as a way to live more protected against the sea.

The grass-covered marshland was well-suited for husbandry. During the 17th and 18th centuries, tra-

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ding cattle, especially to Holland, added significantly to the income of the many farmers in the area. The proximity to the ocean also played an important role since, during the latter part of the 19th century, it provided a natural infrastructure that made it easy to get around.

There were also dangers connected with the marsh: the flat landscape was and is vulnerable to storm surges.

Land reclamation and diking

Inspired by the Frisians, dikes were built. The earliest dikes were low summer-dikes that could protect the land against the daily tide. During the Middle Ages the whole area along the Wadden Sea coast experienced several storm surges that were so destructive that a wish for more effective protection for man and land against the fury of the ocean was a natural consequence. So, man built taller dikes, the so-called ocean-dikes that could keep the masses

Anne Marie Overgaard, Museum Sønderjylland & Klaus Melbye, Vadehavscentret Translation: Nanna Mercer, Sirius Translation

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Living by the wadden sea - before

In conjunction with the diking, Brede River in Ballummarsken was straightened with a new outflow through Ballum Sluse. of water caused by winter storms away from the marshland. In this way, bite by bite, the open marshland was transformed to ”real” farmland. Diking of the Danish part of the Wadden Sea started in Tøndermarsken, where the first ocean-dike was built in 1556 and the last one in 1985 when Det Fremskudte Dige and Vidåslusen were inaugurated. The longstanding land reclamation has made Vidåen 20 km. longer and only the ship depicted on the town arms bears witness to the fact that Tønder was once close to the coast.

Ribemarsken was diked in 1911-1915, Ballummarsken in 1914-1919, Tjæreborg and Darummarsken in 1927-29, with the marshland around Ho Bugt being the only area in the Wadden Sea region that has not been diked.

The diking caused problems with back water from the rivers that run through the marsh. Locks by the dikes should help the river water’s passage through the dikes at low tide, but when storms caused a prolonged high tide the locks had to remain closed, and during the winter this caused the rivers to flood the land behind the dikes. This could repeat itself several times during the winter and meant that the land could not be used during that part of the year.

Draining

The reorganization from husbandry to agriculture meant an increased interest in more effective ways

Æ klu’stach In Tøndermarsken and Ribemarsken the farmers used ”æ klu’stach” about which Saxo wrote in the year 1200: The fields they fenced with ditches that they jump over using pogo sticks – æ klu´stach.

This pogo stick is a cane measuring 3. 60 meter with a transverse block that prevents the stick from sinking deep in the mud.

The creation of the marsh The marsh landscape is youngest in the northern part of the marsh dating from 500 BC, to the southern area dating from 1300 BC. It was created by a rising sea level and the consequent alluviation of the lower areas.

to use the marshland, and that was the background for the draining of Tøndermarsken (1927-1933). Tøndermarsken was the only place where pump stations and river dikes were established. According to need, water could be led in and out of the marsh and we are discussing substantial amounts of water: the four pump stations in Tøndermarsken have a combined capacity of 30m3 water per second. The river dikes signify that Vidåen, as opposed to Brede River and Ribe River, almost never overflows its banks. Ballummarsken and Ribemarsken are also diked, but exclusively through drainage canals. In conjunction

Anne Marie Overgaard, Museum Sønderjylland & Klaus Melbye, Vadehavscentret Translation: Nanna Mercer, Sirius Translation

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Living by the wadden sea - before

Up until the middle of the 20th century, the marshland were mainly used for fattening cattle and harvesting hay.

with the diking, Brede River in Ballummarsken was also straightened with a new outflow through Ballum Sluse thus the water flows faster out of the river.

Not everyone was unquestionably delighted by the draining. The painter, Emil Nolde, who was born and bred in the Tønder region, writes in his memoirs: ”The draining threatens to destroy all nature and primordial beauty. The coolly scheming engineers wreaked a barbaric havoc in the landscape.” As a consequence, Nolde moved in 1927 south of the 1920-border to Seebüll.

The marshland is ”burning”

The diking and the draining of the marsh are not without problems. In the marshes, the early wetland plants have been alluviated by the muddy waters in the Wadden Sea and thus become a varied layer of peat beneath the clayey soil. When this layer is not kept moist, the peat layer is oxygenated and starts ”burning” i.e., sagging. This has happened, among other places, in Ballummarsken, where some areas have sunk as much as 75 cm. The results are larger and wetter areas, for example after periods with a great deal of precipitation.

Up through the 1960s, Ribemarsken was watered with saltwater especially to avoid this problem, and the opposition was fierce when the water supply ser-

vices were abolished. In a protocol from Ribemarsken, a farmer is cited thus: ”We might as well burn bank notes - our land is ruined.”

Cultivating the marshland

Up until the middle of the 20th century, marshland was only cultivated to a certain extent, since the flat grassy areas were used for fattening cattle and harvesting hay.

Cultivating the land started in the 1950s and up through the 1970s when oats were the main crop, since it thrived in the damp soil and could be used as fodder. As well, the greater tractor power made it possible to plough through the heavy marshland soil.

The reorganization from large grassy areas of land to agriculture created problems with sand flight, which, in some areas can still be a problem, albeit to a smaller extent, immediately after ploughing. The solution to the problem was windbreaks, mostly from spruce. On Rømø, the spruce has to a large extent changed the appearance of the island.

New demands and technical possibilities have thus been a governing force for man’s exploitation and modification of the marshland landscape. Or as the Frisians expressed it: ”God created the world, but the Frisians created the coast.”

Anne Marie Overgaard, Museum Sønderjylland & Klaus Melbye, Vadehavscentret Translation: Nanna Mercer, Sirius Translation

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Living by the wadden sea - before

Things to do

Learn about the use of the marsh here

There are many possibilities for guided marsh-tours. ”Sort sol” (murmuration) is a great safari adventure.

NaturKulturVarde

Gl. Skovfogedbolig Roustvej 111 DK-6800 Varde T: +45 75 22 22 50 E: nkv@naturkulturvarde.dk W: www.naturkulturvarde.dk

Varde Museum Kirkepladsen 1 DK-6800 Varde

T: +4575 22 08 77 E: vam@vardemuseum.dk W: www.vardemuseum.dk

Danmarks Ravmuseum Vestergade 25 DK-6840 Oksbøl

T: +45 75 27 07 03 E: vam@vardemuseum.dk W: www.http://vardemuseum.dk/dk.php/museer/ravmuseet

The Fisheries and Maritime Museum Tarphagevej 2-6 DK-6710 Esbjerg V. T: +45 76 12 20 00 E: fimus@fimus.dk W: www.fimus.dk

Esbjerg Museum

Torvegade 45 DK-6700 Esbjerg T: +45 76 16 39 39 E: museum@sydvestjyskemuseer.dk W: www.esbjergmuseum.dk

Vadehavscentret

About Vadehavets Formidlerforum...

Vadehavets Formidlerforum is a partnership of visitor centers that mediate the Wadden Sea’s natural and cultural heritage.

VFF’s main activity is to coordinate projects that highlight the nature and culture heritage of the Wadden Sea..

Learn more at www.vadehav.dk

Okholmvej 5 Vester Vedsted DK-6760 Ribe

T: +4575 44 61 61 E: info@vadehavscentret.dk W: www.vadehavscentret.dk

Museum Sønderjylland - Højer Mølle Møllegade 13 DK-6280 Højer

T: +45 75 44 61 61 E: hoejer@museum-sonderjylland.dk W: www.museum-sonderjylland.dk/hojer-molle.html

Naturcentret Tønnisgård Havnebyvej 30 DK-6792 Rømø T: +45 74 75 52 57 E: info@tonnisgaard.dk W: www.tonnisgaard.dk

Tips for further reading ...

The archaeology of the Wadden Sea The Atlantic Wall by the Wadden Sea Buildings and architecture Life on the islands Navigation, ships and tradet

Anne Marie Overgaard, Museum Sønderjylland & Klaus Melbye, Vadehavscentret Translation: Nanna Mercer, Sirius Translation

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