The xeric grass­lands in the low­er Oder val­ley go back to human eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty. They emerged when pas­ture areas were cre­at­ed in the High Mid­dle Ages, often after defor­esta­tion on the val­ley slopes or on the edge of the Oder val­ley. Despite the his­to­ry of its ori­gins, which was strong­ly influ­enced by humans, we find extreme­ly rich and inter­est­ing habi­tats here, which are home to many, espe­cial­ly floris­tic rar­i­ties. The xeric grass­lands is sub­di­vid­ed accord­ing to the type of soil into sandy dry grass­land on sandy and steppe dry grass­land on loamy soils.

Dry sandy grass­lands are wide­spread through­out the low­er Oder Val­ley, even on high­er-lying loca­tions in the actu­al Strom­ta­laue, which may be sur­pris­ing at first glance. As a result of the flood­plain dynam­ics and their inter­play between sed­i­men­ta­tion and ero­sion, dry sand grass­land is also found on the sandy areas sed­i­ment­ed in the pold­er area, on which the yel­low inflo­res­cences of the fel­ty but­ter­bur (Pet­a­sites spurius) stand out. Lat­er a num­ber of the small, rare horn­wort species bloom here (Cerastium dubi­um, Cerastium pal­lens, Cerastium brachy­petalum). In sum­mer there is sil­ver grass (Corynepho­rus canescens) and Tatar catch­fly (Silene tatar­i­ca) before. When these sites solid­i­fy, a heather car­na­tion lawn develops.

On the heights there are dif­fer­ent types of dry sand grass­land where fes­cue species (Fes­tu­ca tra­chy­phyl­la, Fes­tu­ca psam­mophi­la, Fes­tu­ca polesi­ca) play the main role among the grass species. There are also dif­fer­ent species and sub­species of feath­er grass (Sti­pa joan­nis, Sti­pa borys­theni­ca) and are a mag­nif­i­cent sight in ear­ly sum­mer with their long, hairy awns. Rare herbs such as the two species of cucum­ber (Silene otites andSilene chlo­ran­tha), the adder’s head hawk­weed (Hieraci­um echioides), the Carthu­sian car­na­tion (Dianthus carthu­siano­rum), the yel­low tooth grid (Orthantha lutea), the Siber­ian bell­flower (Cam­pan­u­la sibir­i­ca) and many oth­ers com­plete the pic­ture and mark indi­vid­ual associations.

The dry steppe grass­lands in the nation­al park are par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant in terms of flo­ra and nature con­ser­va­tion. While the feath­er grass steppe with the awl grass (Sti­pa capil­la­ta) still offers a rel­a­tive­ly monot­o­nous pic­ture, the mead­ow steppes near Geesow, Gartz, Stützkow, Gellmers­dorf, Stolpe or Stolzen­hagen can be com­pared more with wild­ly flow­er­ing gar­dens than with the usu­al plant communities.

The light blue flow­ers of the wire-haired vio­let (Vio­la hir­ta) a strong con­trast to the yel­low cush­ions of flow­ers of the sand cinque­foil (Poten­til­la are­nar­ia), which will soon be sup­port­ed by the strong white flow­ers of the Great Anemone (Anemone sylvestris) and the white cinque­foil (Poten­til­la alba) are inter­spersed. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly with the devel­op­ment of the dom­i­nant pin­nate-twins (Brachy­podi­um pin­na­tum) or the pret­ty quak­ing grass (Briza media) open the inflo­res­cences of the grass lilies (Anther­icum ramo­sum), the blue tow­ers of the mead­ow sage (Salvia praten­sis), the col­or­ful flower spots of the clover species (Tri­foli­um mon­tanum, Tri­foli­um alpestre) or the deep blue flow­ers of the Great Braunelle (Prunel­la gran­di­flo­ra). Long stalks with the pur­ple inflo­res­cences of the pur­ple sal­si­fy (Scor­zon­era pur­purea) are in sev­er­al places through the pink to red flower clus­ters of the three-toothed orchid (Orchis tri­den­ta­ta) added. The rare sum­mer root species (Orobanche vul­garis andOrobanche lutea), which are tied to cer­tain host species as full par­a­sites. There are Oro­branche lutea B. only where the sick­le alfal­fa (Med­ica­go fal­ca­ta) grows. Dif­fer­ent types of blue­bells also begin (Cam­pan­u­la glom­er­a­ta, Cam­pan­u­la cer­vi­caria, Cam­pan­u­la bonon­ien­sis) with their flo­ral flow­ers, which often last until late autumn. The flower groups of the blood-red cranes­bill often grow en masse on the edges of the bush­es (Gera­ni­um san­guineum).

With its dark blue flower clus­ters, the cross gen­tian (Gen­tiana cru­ci­a­ta) the flo­ral mid­sum­mer and leads over to the autumn flo­ra. Then indi­vid­ual parts of the slope look yel­low when the inflo­res­cences of the gold­en-haired aster (Aster linosyris) or the com­mon gold­en­rod (Sol­ida­go vir­gau­rea) appear, which are then often tak­en from the deer root (Peucedanum cer­varia) are tow­ered over. But this is only a small part of the bio­di­ver­si­ty of these locations.

The plant species in the nation­al park, which are most­ly threat­ened with extinc­tion, can also be found on the dry grass­land. The nation­al park has a spe­cial floris­tic respon­si­bil­i­ty here. How­ev­er, dry lawn main­te­nance is not easy and expen­sive. In many places unkempt, that is, dry lawns that are no longer grazed, are threat­ened by bush­es and also affect­ed. In order to change things for the bet­ter, graz­ing in com­pli­ance with nature con­ser­va­tion must first be ensured. With the pro­vi­sion­al assign­ment of own­er­ship as part of the cor­po­rate land con­sol­i­da­tion in 2013, prac­ti­cal­ly all dry grass­land areas in the nation­al park have become the prop­er­ty of the nation­al park asso­ci­a­tion. This made it pos­si­ble for the Nation­al Park Asso­ci­a­tion to imple­ment a coher­ent and sus­tain­able man­age­ment con­cept. Since then, all of the dry grass­lands have been leased to a shep­herd for a small lease. A few areas are also grazed by don­keys or light hors­es such as Koniks. Graz­ing with light cat­tle is also pos­si­ble and has been test­ed. The alien alpacas (Vicugna pacos), as they do not cause any dam­age or even Eurasian half ass­es like onagers (Equ­us hemionus).

Since the con­tin­u­ous graz­ing, the con­di­tion of the dry grass­land has improved. First, how­ev­er, de-bush­ing mea­sures had to be car­ried out, which were ini­tial­ly also sup­port­ed by the David Nature Con­ser­va­tion Foun­da­tion. Also vol­un­teers of the nature con­ser­va­tion asso­ci­a­tion Schwedt / O. are always active here, for exam­ple in the Müller Moun­tains and in Höllengrund.

Flam­ing has also been tried out for a num­ber of years. In the spring, the excess grass is burned off in a con­trolled man­ner. This is a nat­ur­al process in the wild and can be caused by light­ning strikes. After the win­try “flam­ing”, the fresh green can bet­ter shoot into the weed. How­ev­er, it is very com­plex, requires long prepa­ra­tion and good coöper­a­tion with the local fire depart­ment. The first suc­cess­es can already be observed on the burned-down areas, the orchid orchid (Orchis mil­i­taris) has increased significantly.

Dry lawn care is a focus of the Bran­den­burg Acad­e­my, which reg­u­lar­ly orga­nizes con­fer­ences on this top­ic. The lec­tures held here will be pub­lished in the Nation­al Park Year­book Low­er Oder Val­ley.