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pansa
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 14:41 - Edited by: pansa
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Some of my Woophy friends know that I live in or at least very close to the "Biesbosch": a tidal fresh water estuarium in the west of The Netherlands. The area originally was a prosperous agricultural polder called "Groote Waard". On the 18th of November 1421 several sea and river dikes broke as result of a spring-tide and heavy storm and a big area was flooded. Some 72 villages were swallowed by the water. The result was what is called now the Biesbosch: a maze of rivers, creeks, sand and mud banks.
The catastrophy was on the one hand due to a lack of maintenance of the diking system because of the Hook and Cod wars in that part of Holland between 1350 and 1490. This conflict was caused by the difficulties in the succession of the title of "Count of Holland" after the death of Willem IV in 1345 but mainly the struggle between the bourgeois in the cities and the ruling nobility. The "Hooks" were the conservative noblemen supporting Margareth of Bavaria and the "Cods" the progressive bourgeois from the cities. A second threat to the dikes came from the salt industry that was done by digging off the peat outside the dikes. Salt was extracted from that peat by drying and burning. But the digging was a big threat for the stability of the dikes.
In the following centuries parts of the Biesbosch were recovered by river depositioning of sand and mud and by diking. There is still a large part of wilderness left: the fresh water estuarium. Before the Delta Works in the sixties and seventies, the tidal difference was about 2 meters. After the closure of the locks in the Haringvliet some 20-60 cm tide is left. There are plans to open the Haringvliet locks a bit to increase the tidal wave in the Biesbosch. This will have a great influence on flora and fauna of the eco system.
If you type in the name "Hank" in Google Earth you get a nice overview of the Biesbosch
(the part west of the village). It's now a National Park with limited access for people and a lot of freedom for (water) birds, fish and beavers. The agricultural polders north of the estuarium are the recovered land. It will be given back to nature between now and 2015 and will become part of the Biesbosch again. The old creek system will be restored by man and river dikes along the river Merwede and river Bergsche Maas will be opened so that the water has free access. At the moment some 70 families live in that area; most of them have to move out.
For a photographer it's an eldorado because of the special light and the water and skies. I like to share it with you in what I call "The Biesbosch Project".
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Gian Paolo Dess
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 15:09 - Edited by: Gian Paolo Dess
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Veramente interessante, magnifiche foto.
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Martin de Rijk
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 15:21
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Well Pansa it must be great to live nearby.
A fine stiory (I always loved history) and a fine series of pictures to show us the beauty of the Biesbosch. I assume the project will continue :-)
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Richt
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 18:34
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Thanks Pansa that you will share this beautiful pict. with us. Fantastic that you have this ëldorado"in your backgarden!
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geert geenen
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 19:31
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wonderful photo's, Pansa, and a good story. i'm jealous of you living so close to this beautiful national park. i hope to see a lot of your Biesbosch-photo's in the future
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devish
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 20:11
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Great series of pics Pansa, nice story to go along as well. Thanks!
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bruha
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 07 22:35
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Thank you Pansa for sharing your wonderful photo story. We see so many photos submitted to Woophy and yet so often have no idea of what or where they are or what they represent. Maybe this is a new direction for Woophy to take, I know that myself and others I know would be interested in contributing.
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drora
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 07 07:16
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great job Pansa - thank you for the story in pictures it's realy beautiful.
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Dieuwertje
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 07 11:51
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Good story and beautiful photo's Pansa. Well done.
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MBG
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 07 12:55
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nice project pansa
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Oscar_
Moderator
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# Posted: 4 Nov 07 15:54
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Great series of pictures about the biesbosch with a great story.
Thanks for sharing this in the forum.......
Greetz Oscar
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Steve L
Member
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# Posted: 5 Nov 07 00:39
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A very interesting story made even more real by your photos. And the photos are more meaningful because of what you told us about this beautiful area. Yours is a worthy project and you did it well. I hope we see more in the future. Thank you so very much for this.
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Corneel Timmermans
Member
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# Posted: 5 Nov 07 12:24
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Well done Pansa,
I like the photo projects, very education for you're self which photo's to make, what moment, time and spot.
I like the photo's but not all of them some are imo too general and are not contributing to the "photo-project" result.
You might not mind it at all, I don't now (I've got also the problem of descarding and shifting photo's). But imagine if you'd only showed you're photo's (4th, 410578; 11th, 402280; 15th, 410072; 16th, 386969; 17th, 364612; (daubt 18th, 3503603) 19th, 267913; 20th, 267879; 23th, 233500 and 24th, 233967 (very nice shots!)
Anyway this came to my mind when looking at the photo's, I'd just think the result be "stronger"....
In anycase keep up the good work.
grtz,
Corneel
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pansa
Member
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# Posted: 6 Nov 07 16:05
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Thanks Corneel for the suggestion.
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