GGBN Conference 2016/Field Trips
Note: All field trips are shared events and organized together with SPNHC. If you want to register for GGBN you can book the field trips during registration.
June 19-20
Senckenberg, Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt/Main and Messel Research Station
With about 37 million objects, the Senckenberg network constitutes the biggest natural history collection in Germany. The network partners are distributed over whole Germany with comprehensive collections in the natural history museums in Dresden, Görlitz and Frankfurt and the German Entomological Institute in Müncheberg and additional research institutions focusing e.g. on climate change and marine science. A well-known member of the Senckenberg community is the Messel Pit (Grube Messel). It was a bituminous shale mine and became almost a landfill but strong local resistance fortunately stopped these plans at the end. In 1995 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the abundance of extraordinary (Eocene) fossils, e.g. Darwinius masillae. Until today, significant scientific discoveries are still being made.
The two-day field trip offers a unique chance to get a deep insight in both, the Senckenberg headquarter in Frankfurt with its wonderful exhibitions and valuable collections and the famous Messel Pit. Starting on Sunday morning at the Andel’s hotel we will go by train to Frankfurt where the colleagues from the Senckenberg Naturmuseum will take us on a tour through the exhibition and collections (with focus on paleontological collections). At the end of this first exciting day, a bus will bring us to our hotel, the Jagdschloss Kranichstein. It is situated just a few minutes from the Messel Pit in Darmstadt. Monday morning will be spent on an excursion at the Messel Pit World Heritage Site. We will have the chance to experience live excavation and preparation activities and will have look at the visitors’ center. After lunch a bus shuttle will bring us to the train station to get back to Berlin. To make sure that you can fully relax and enjoy the whole field trip from start to end, we will take of everything and arranged an all-inclusive-package.
This package includes all costs, especially for transportation, meals, hotel and entrances.
| Time: | June 19 | Start: 7:15 AM |
| to June 20 | End: 7:30 PM |
Fee: 298 €
Bus pick up location: Andel’s Hotel Lobby
Note: This excursion is held in parallel to the "Darß/Stralsund" excursion as well as to all Monday excursions.
June 19-20
Darß, Stralsund and Deutsches Meeresmuseum Stralsund
The fieldtrip will guide you through the historic town of Stralsund, the impressive Meeresmuseum and Ozeaneum and will make a trip to the beautiful coast of the Baltic Sea. We will start by bus in Berlin and go directly to Prerow, on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula. After a light walk through the unique forest environment that is part of the national reservation Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft, we will visit the lighthouse and Museum Natureum on the northern top of the peninsula. A “Kremser” (covered char-a-bank) trip will take us back to the bus from where we go to Stralsund, one of the old hanseatic cities along the Baltic Sea. On the next day, we will visit the Ozeaneum/maritime museum. With its different buildings the maritime museum is embedded in the beautiful historic city of Stralsund. Most famous is the Ozeaneum with its giant sea water tanks that will take you on an exceptional journey through the underwater world of the northern seas that is unique throughout Europe.
This package includes all costs, especially for transportation, meals, hotel and entrances.
| Time: | not decided yet |
Fee: 225 €
Bus pick up location: Andel’s Hotel Lobby
Note: This excursion is held in parallel to the "Darß/Stralsund" excursion as well as to all Monday excursions.
June 20
Schorfheide
The UNESCO biosphere reserve Schorfheide-Chorin was established in 1990 and is one of the largest protected areas in Germany. Situated about 65 km north-east of Berlin it represents an impressive cultural landscape with more than 320 lakes, thousands of bogs and mires, extended forests, meadows and arable land. The richly structured landscape with its variety of biotopes and habitats offers a high diversity of fauna and flora in favorable living conditions, many of them extinct or threatened with extinction elsewhere in Germany. You will have the chance to discover them during the fieldtrip. An excursion to this part of the country would not be perfect without a stop at the Schorfheide Game Park.
| Time: | not decided yet |
Fee: 80€
Bus pick up location: Andel’s Hotel Lobby
Note: This excursion is held in parallel to the "Darß/Stralsund" excursion as well as to all Monday excursions.
June 20
Spreewald punt tour
About 100 km south-east of Berlin is the UNESCO biosphere reserve Spreewald. It is known for its traditional irrigation system, which consists of more than 200 small canals, and is traditionally and best travelled by punts. The landscape was shaped during the Ice Age. Alder forests on wetlands and pine forests on sandy dry areas are characteristic for the region.
This field trip will take you on a punt tour and walk to discover a unique combination of untouched nature and cultural traditions. Starting directly from the Andel’s hotel, we will go first to Lübbenau by bus, from where we enter the punts. At lunchtime, we will stop at the restaurant "Wofschofska" and continue afterwards our punt tour to the outdoor museum in Lehde. After returning to Lübbenau, we will go back to Berlin by bus again.
| Time: | 7:15 AM to 6.45 PM |
Fee: 90€
Bus pick up location: Andel’s Hotel Lobby
Note: This excursion is held in parallel to the "Darß/Stralsund" excursion as well as to all Monday excursions.
June 20
Steppe birds and grassland restoration in the Rhin-Havel River drainage basin This field trip will lead us to the grasslands and marshes of the “Havelländisches Luch” and Havel River valley some 70 kilometres west of Berlin. The marshes have been drained and degraded for agricultural purpose in the 1970s but are now in a state of restoration. The “Havelländisches Luch” is the main site for the Great Bustard Otis tarda in Germany. Moreover it is home of many other threatened grassland species such as Corncrake, Quail, Montague’s Harrier etc. We will also visit the nearby Bird Conservation Centre belonging to the Brandenburg State office of Environment. In the afternoon, we will visit Gülper See, a shallow lake with adjacent meadows and streams which is a hotspot for marsh birds, waterfowl and raptors such as the White-tailed Eagle. Binoculars are mandatory.
The field trip is restricted to 15 participants and includes lunch boxes.
We will travel with small buses.
| Time: | 7:15 AM to 6.45 PM |
Fee: 80€
Bus pick up location: Andel’s Hotel Lobby
Note: This excursion is held in parallel to the "Darß/Stralsund" excursion as well as to all Monday excursions.
