Vallée de la Syre de Manternach à Fielsmillen

manternach
Card showing the Natura 2000 area (green line) and the target areas (orange)

The area of the Syre Valley from Manternach to the Fielsmillen covers, besides the Syre Valley itself, also some secondary valleys. The Syre Valley is marked by its sunny escarpments and a Trias-dominated geology, with Keuper and Muschelkalk.

The south-exposed rock-edges are shallow grounded and were terraced in parts in the past as they were used for winegrowing. On other escarpments, dry grassland could develop. The steep rock faces are either without vegetation or they show a mosaic of heat-loving shrubbery formations, dry grasslands and gravel-communities. The North-slopes, however show a fern-rich vegetation, mainly with forestcommunities of gorges and slopes, but also with orchid-rich calcareous beech groves. In the Syre Valley you can find alluvial forests. The Valley is very diverse in its biotopes and offers a habitat to many plants and animals. For example you can find here the two-leaf squill, the hart’s-tongue fern, woodpeckers and the commonn kingfisher, as well as kites, the black stork and the eurasian wryneck.

Even if the Syre Valley is small-area, it is an important step-stone for the preservation and connection of calcareous dry grassland. Because the steep and sun-exposed slopes offer ideal conditions for dry grassland and their long use as vineyards and orchards, scrub clearing as well as the removal of inappropriate tree species are especially promising. By extensification of the surrounding surfaces, the existing surfaces can be enlarged and a buffer zone to intensively used land can be constructed.