The Kil Hurwenen, or De Kil as locals call it, is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

in the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

of the

Waal WAAL (99.1 FM broadcasting, FM; "The Whale") is a commercial radio, commercial radio station licensed to Binghamton, New York. It airs a classic rock radio format and is owned by Townsquare Media. WAAL is the oldest FM radio station continuou ...

Hurwenen Hurwenen is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Maasdriel, and lies about 11 km southwest of Tiel. Thijs Straver is the mayor of Hurwenen. Hurwenen was a separate municipality until 1955, when i ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in the municipality of

Maasdriel Maasdriel () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the province of Gelderland, in the eastern Netherlands. Maasdriel was formed on 1 January, 1999 by the merger of the former municipalities of Ammerzoden (including Well, Wellsein ...

. The area was created in 1639 when a former

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

of the Waal was cut off from the river by human intervention. The walk in the countryside is still clearly recognizable. During

high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

the area is still flooded by water from the river. In the immediate vicinity there are a number of sand ditches, a remnant of the

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

extraction from the brick industry in the area. Before the municipal reorganization of 1999 the preserve still partly belonged to the municipality of

Zaltbommel Zaltbommel (), also known, historically and colloquially, as Bommel, is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. History The city of Zaltbommel The town of Zaltbommel was first mentioned as "Bomela" in the year 850. Zaltbommel received ...

. However, by a boundary adjustment the nature preserve belongs entirely to the municipality of

. Many

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

species encountered during the trek to and from their wintering areas were using the area to forage. The Kil Hurwenen is the property of The Dutch National Forest Service and is not accessible to the public. However, the surrounding fields from May 1 to October 1 are freely accessible from

sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

References

Maasdriel Protected areas of the Netherlands {{Gelderland-geo-stub

See also

References