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Ameland is a West Frisian island with a very specific nature and culture, and it is not without reason that it is called the Wadden diamond. The island is 28 kilometres in length and the area covers 273 km2 (water area: 215 km2). The inhabitants of Ameland are split up in four villages, which have all been declared protected rural areas: Nes, Hollum, Ballum, and Buren. The island offers even more than the nice shops, modern restaurants and nice outdoor cafés. Ameland has many nature areas and offers a variety of flora and fauna. Museums can be visited and innumerable sports and recreation activities can be done.

For general information: see web page The Wadden Sea.

Nature & Landscape

Sea and coastline
Wadden Sea: the coast on the southern side of the island has much more silt than the beach along the North Sea. This is because the Wadden Sea is a shallow coastal sea with mud flats (so-called ‘wadden’) and sandbanks, which stand clear of the water at low tides. The marine fauna is diverse and it abounds in various kinds of algae and seaweeds (diatoms, green algae, brown seaweeds, red algae, and the bacterial blue-green algae), as well as worms, shellfish, crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, and lobsters), and fish. The area also supplies food for birds and seals and it is a breeding ground for shrimp and fish from the North Sea.
The so-called shore birds search for food on the mud flats at the low tides; at the high tides they rest on higher shores, dunes and other refuges that are suitable when there is high tide. Seals rest on sandbanks and beaches during low tides; they feed especially during high tides.
Het Bornrif: a shallow water area in the North Sea. It is located between Borndiep west of Ameland and the centre part of the island. Because of natural changes in the current flow in the tidal inlets between the islands, the development of the coast is extremely dynamic. Channels find new ways and sand hills get moved.

Dune area
The most important areas are the following:

Langeduinen: located between Hollum and Ballum is Langeduinen, a vast and swampy dune area. It covers 294 ha and is split up into a northern and a southern area by a bicycle path. The northern part consists of extensive swamps with hardstem bulrush, reed and sea club-rush. Rare species of plant and species of bird can be found. The intriguing diversity in flora and fauna has to do with the change in wet and dry, and fresh and salt. This is because sea water gets in this valley during high storm tides through gaps in the sea wall. The southern part of Langeduinen is a dry dune field with elongated dune ridges and the norhern part consists of an extensive channel of reed swamps. The area consists of open water, reed-lands, dune heath and bushes. About 60 species of bird can brood here, thanks to the wide variety of landscapes.
Jan Roepesheide: near the village of Hollum and within Langeduinen is Jan Roepesheide, a landscape of about 44 ha of low Older Dunes and heather. The earliest stage of the development from embankment to Older Dunes more inland can still clearly be seen here. New embankments (‘Younger Dunes’) formed on the seaside through the ages. The older sea wall became an inland dune. This valley was cut off from the sea, so it became a freshwater area because of the fresh rainwater. Jan Roepesheide is popular with hikers, which has led to a decrease of the number of summer birds. However, rare species of bird still brood here.
Ballumerduinen (201 ha): an old dune area with a lime deficiency, consisting of a complex of low and small dunes and damp valleys. In the valleys there is a wide variety of plants and birds.
Roosduinen (nearly 83 ha): a large area of low dunes and an elongated lake along the Ballum shifting dike. This dike was constructed between 1804 and 1812 in order to protect the village of Ballum. Roosduinen consists of damp grassland and bushes of creeping willow. There is a young woodland of conifers, which is the sleeping-place of jackdaws. Many birds brood in this woodland and heath area.
Zwanenwaterduinen (76 ha): dune field that came into being with the help of a sand bar that shifted inland, and lower dunes behind it. The overgrowth of the area is rough and can be compared to the Ballumerduinen.
Buurderduinen: slightly hilly area. The eastern part of the area is an overgrown valley and in the west there are some damp little valleys. The landscape is land with dune grass, with alternately dune heather and in the valleys damp dune heather, bushes of creeping willow, and damp grassland. A great diversity in flora and fauna can be found here as well.
Kooi-oerd-stuifdijkduinen (130 ha): consists of a dry area of Younger Dunes on the western side with some dry valleys and many boscages. In the south the area borders on the dike Kooi-oerdstuifdijk. This sand dike is man-made and constructed at the end of the nineteenth century. The Kooi-oerd shifting dikes and dunes harbour many rare species of plant and they are a nest site for 29 species of bird.
Het Oerd: an uninhabited nature reserve, consisting of an old, overgrown dune field with some high dunes and dune valleys. Het Oerd has officially been a nature reserve since 1938. The area has an extremely rich bird population. Part of the area is closed off for visitors during the breeding season. Alternatively, a walking route is plotted during this time.
De Hon: this dynamic dune and sandbar area is located on the utmost eastern point of Ameland. It consists of Younger Dunes and a salt marsh. Due to the construction of a shifting dike against flooding, dunes formed. De Hon is a stopping place and high water refuge for all birds on the salt marshes.

Salt marshes
Nieuwlandsreid: an area of salt marshes of 400 ha. It is overgrown with thrift and other salt marsh plants, which makes it a large green plain on which many sheep and young cattle can be found in summer; in winter there are wigeons and geese.
Zoute Weide: this salty area with salt marshes is located in the norhern part of Nieuwlandsreid. The area consists of low middle dunes and swamps. It has suffered much damage from erosion caused by the North Sea.

Woods
Originally, there are no woods on Ameland. This is why the inhabitants of the villages had much to suffer from the salt sea wind and drifting sand. In order to prevent this, woods were planted by the Department of Waterways and Public Works at the end of the nineteenth century. This way not only the villages were protected, but the dune sand was kept in its place as well. Around 1950, all four villages were protected by woods on the northern side: Hollumerbos, Nesserbos, Oostbos, and Ballumerbos.
De Vleijen: this wood was planted at the end of the twentieth century, in order to contribute to a varied environment and to increase the value of the landscape on the island. Besides this, the wood, which consists of broad-leaved trees and coniferous trees, has primarily a recreative function.
Kwekerijbos (48 ha): this wood has come into being in the beginning of the twentieth century out of a nursery that provided young trees for planting new woods in the rest of the island. Nowadays, the wood does not have this function any more and broad-leaved trees can be found side by side with coniferous trees.

Cultural landscapes
For the most part, the man-made landscapes are grasslands for cattle breeding, especially cows and sheep. Thanks to the establishment of water board districts and land consolidation at the end of the nineteenth century, the number of cattle farms and livestock increased enormously. Dairy production soon became an important source of income on the island. Nowadays, there are 48 large cattle farms and 62 small ones on Ameland. Because of the restrictive measures for processing manure in cattle farms, the government introduced subsidies for sheepfarms some years ago. On Ameland this led to an increase in the number of sheep; now there are some 70,000 sheep on the island. The most important yield is the meat. Besides the cattle farms there are merely 8 ha of farmland on Ameland. This is because the yield of agriculture was focussed on people’s own private needs, so large surfaces were unnecessary during Ameland’s entire history. However, a new form of agriculture is rising on Ameland: winegrowing. There will be a small-scale experiment in order to find out whether winegrowing is possible on the West Frisian islands. The findings must be finished in 2006, and maybe farmlands will return to Ameland.

Flora and fauna
There is a large diversity in flora and fauna on Ameland. Wadden birds can be found in the Nieuwlandsreid. This area is an important high water refuge and it is important for feeding as well. There are five large groups of birds in the salt marshes: stilt-walkers, geese, ducks, gulls and terns. The entire area of salt marshes is the domain of birds of prey such as the buzzard, the peregrine, and the merlin. In winter, there are large numbers of brent geese to be seen. There are also many other species of bird and even rare species. Birds to be seen include the whinchat, stonechat, hen harrier, marsh harrier, grasshopper warbler, curlew, bittern, bearded reedling, water rail, common snipe, and the nightingale. The Roosduinen dune and heather landscape is being preserved by a herd of Soay sheep. They have their origin in the northwest of Scotland and are immediate descendants of the European primal sheep. There are also deer on Ameland, which is peculiar, as they do not live on the other West Frisian islands. Both the flora and fauna are very rich on Ameland. Many (rare) flowers and plants can be found here. A small selection: ling, crowberry, bog gentian, heath violet, common heathgrass, red-rattle, orchis, grass of Parnassus, bog-rush, twayblade, Scotch rose, round-leaved wintergreen, common centaury, water mint, marsh helleborine, three-nerved sedge and common sedge, adder’s-tongue, common marsh-bedstraw, pennywort, silverweed, and lesser spearwort.

Nature centres
Nature centre Ameland: a permanent exhibition gives you information about the flora & fauna and the Ameland landscapes. The sea aquarium gives you an overview of the life in the water around the island. There is also a more educational part in the centre, where (school) groups learn everything there is to know about Ameland, the Wadden and the North Sea area by means of excursions, slide shows and fieldwork. The museum also offers treasure hunts, searches, walking tours, guided tours, educational bicycle rides, and films on the Wadden area. The nature centre is opened throughout the year. Strandweg 38, Nes. Tel: +31 (0)519-542737.