The National Park Lower Oder Valley is the only flood plains national park in Germany. It is situated around the lower stretch of the Oder River and has a size of 10.500 hectares. It was opened on 10 September 1995. It is surrounded on the German side by the 17.774 ha large landscape protection area Nationalpark Region Lower Oder Valley. The national park is connected to the Polish landscape protection park Unteres Odertal (Park Krajobrazowy Dolina Dolnej Odry) and the Zehden landscape protection park (Cedynski Park Krajobrazowy).
Since 1992 the area between Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler canal and the Oder River, including the bordering areas on the German side and the two-river land between East and West or from Widuchowa (Fiddichow) and up to the Skoscnica Canal on the Polish side – form a supra-regional nature protection area called Internationalpark Unteres Odertal.
The international protection zone measures more than 1000 sq. km and stretches 60 km along the river Oder – both on German and Polish sides. The national park itself is 2 to 8 km wide. Here you can find the only intact polder areas Germany’s with huge flood reserve zones for the Oder River. It was inspired by the Dutch concept in the beginning of the 20th century. In 1997 during the big Oder floods it could prove its life saving capacities when it stored gigantic masses of water and could prevent possibly an even greater disaster in the downstream regions.
The national park is home to many rare animal and plant species and is becoming more and more attractive to a natural and sustainable form of tourism.
In the park’s information centre in Criewen visitors can learn more about the national natural landscapes. The national park region offers unique opportunities for individual and guided tours by foot, bike or on the water.
In case you haven’t already planned to do so anyway – we highly recommend that you cycle along a section of the Oder-Neiße cycle path, that you hike through the polders or you experience the frog’s perspective and discover the Oder valley by boat. Maybe the certified canoe guide Frauke Bennett from Flusslandschaft Reisen could be your personal guide. She is – like us – official partner of the national park.