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Untamed river

Dec 15, 2023 / Henriette Adolf, CIPRA Germany
Free flowing rivers, along with their ever-changing landscape, river course and bank structure, are a precious rarity in the Alps. One of the last ones is the Friederlaine. A group of young environmentalists explored the hidden gem in the German Alps.
Image caption:
The debris-covered floor of the Friedergries valley. © Henriette Adolf, CIPRA Deutschland

Standing in the middle of the Friedergries feels a little bit like standing in a forest that died in a fairytale a long time ago. Debris from the river spreads across the wide valley floor of the Friedergries, burying trees that then rise up as skeletons against an impressive mountain backdrop, creating an archaic landscape. But looking closer, there is life everywhere: Grass blades push through the gravel brought by the last flood, a rare butterfly scurries by and the sun paints patterns of light in the shadows of the sparse heather forest at the sides of the debris lane, all while the water of the Friederlaine guzzles cheerfully somewhere in the distance.

“The landscape is really special”, explains Julian (23). “Most other rivers in the alps are confined by dams and are straightened to ease transportation and make energy production possible”. The Friederlaine is not one of them: She can flow freely and chooses her own path through th wide floodplain around her. Unfortunately, there are not many rivers like this left in the Alps. And renaturalizing alpine rivers once they are forced out of their free course is a near impossible venture: “There’s not much space around them anymore”, regrets Moritz, 24 years old. “The ground is used for farming or for buildings.” Ground, that a free-flowing river would need as floodplain. The many different owners of the space adjacent to the rivers complicate things only further. The Friederlaine is one of the last free rivers in the Alps – a small utopia in the dense infrastructure covering our alps.

Fabia (23) hopes nonetheless that rivers in the Alps will be built back to look more natural and to increased biodiversity. Just as Tim, who wishes for diversity in the habitats of the river landscapes, for rivers with different sedimentation – for free-flowing rivers. “We should do more for that”, concludes the twenty-six-year-old matter-of-factly. “So that natural processes can take over”.

 

Sources: Interviews Utopia-Excursion “Wochenende in der Zugspitzregion” (July 2023)
Links: https://www.umweltatlas.bayern.de/standortauskunft/rest/reporting/sb_geotope/generate/Geotope.pdf?additionallayerfieldvalue=180R034 (de), https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Jb-Verein-Schutz-Bergwelt_52_1987_0037-0070.pdf (de)

Photos (c) CIPRA Germany, Henriette Adolf

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Filed under: Visit Utopia
Dec 15, 2023
Author
Henriette Adolf, CIPRA Germany

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What: Visit Utopia - Friedergries/D
Who: The Friedergries is the debris cone of the "Friederlaine"; a torrent, which transports fine-grained main dolomite debris as bedload.
Where: In the southern part of the nature reserve “Ammergauer Alpen”, near Griesen, a village part of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
When: since the age of the norium / holocene
How: The Friedergrieß is a combined alluvial/mud cone consisting almost exclusively of main dolomite debris. This originates from the ditch of the Friederlaine torrent. Larger stones and boulders are accumulated especially in the lower part of the gravel. Stones can be even found on tree branches, compliment of larger flood events. Many trees are "drowned", so that the Friedergrieß winds in places through a dead forest. Due to floods, however, gravel banks and driftwood are deposited again and again. This creates new habitats for specially adapted animal and plant species, such as such as the gravel bank grasshopper or the German tamarisk.
Transferability: The Friedergries is geoscientifically significant. The geotope is rare; there are less than 5 comparable geotopes in the region. There is only one geological region with similar geotopes.

Via Alpina Youth - walking the change

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