Skjern River () is the largest river in Denmark, in terms of volume. The river has its
spring in Tinnet Krat in central Jutland, very close to Denmark's longest river, the
Gudenå. It drains about one tenth of Denmark and flows into the Ringkøbing Fjord - a
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
and former
bay of the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
. The river has its name from town of
Skjern, located at the
river delta
A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...
(the only river delta in the country) at Ringkøbing Fjord. In flood stage, it can discharge up to 200
m³/s.
Recent history
In the 1960s, the Danish government began straightening the rivers run and drain the extensive
wetlands
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
that had formed around the
river mouth
A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carryin ...
, to prevent the frequent floodings and allow for
intensive farming
Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of arable farming, crop plants and of Animal husbandry, animals, with higher levels ...
in the region. However, the plan backfired. Without the frequent
sediment
Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...
deposits supplied by floodings, increasing amounts of chemical fertilizers and nutrients were needed to sustain a productive agriculture and the river, unable to spread the sediment across a wide wetland, silted up in many places. Furthermore, the land began to sink as it dried out and ceased to be replenished with fresh sediment. The slow sinking of the land, made the drainage infrastructure increasingly ineffective.
By 1987, the government decided to implement a program of
land rehabilitation
Land rehabilitation as a part of environmental remediation is the process of returning the land in a given area to some degree of its former state, after some process ( industry, natural disasters, etc.) has resulted in its damage. Many project ...
to restore the river to a more natural state. Though the plan was not completed and approved until 1997, by 2002, the work was mostly completed. Much of the river and wetland are now protected area, home to a variety of wildlife, including
otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...
s,
Atlantic salmon
The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Hucho taimen, Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlan ...
and a variety of
waterbirds. Tourism and traditional
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...
grazing
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...
, have replaced the intensive agriculture as the primary economic use of the land.
The restored Skjern River and surrounding delta was supposed to be incorporated in the
Skjern Å National Park, comprising a area, but the national park project was abandoned in 2012. The national park process however, had already advanced to the level of establishing walking paths and facilities for visitors at that point and on 21 September 2014, two local citizens groups, involving nine towns and villages, unofficially opened Skjern Å National Park.
Nationalpark Skjern Å åbnede d. 21.september 2014
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See also
* List of rivers in Denmark
* List of national parks of Denmark
References
Sources
* Ecological Engineering 2007 (Morten Lauge Pedersen ''et al.'')
Restoration of Skjern River and its valley—Short-term effects on river habitats, macrophytes and macroinvertebrates
''Department of Freshwater Ecology'', National Environmental Research Institute.
External links
Map of the river delta
* Sense the West Coast
Skjern Å - A Unique Piece of Nature
Info-page on nature- and tourists experiences in the river delta.
visited 20.01.2015,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skjern
Rivers of Jutland
Wetlands of Denmark