Leiblach

The Leiblach protection area is a Natura 2000 site in Vorarlberg beside the Bodensee. It stretches along the lower Leiblach from river kilometre 4.8 to its mouth, covering Bregenz, Hörbranz and Lochau. The landscape includes floodplain forests, sedge meadows, reed beds and a sheltered bay where water levels shift with the seasons. The site protects rare habitats and species. It holds oligotrophic pools, eutrophic lakes with submerged plants, and alder-ash floodplain woods. Among its animals are beavers, the great crested newt, yellow-bellied toad and the scarce Graphoderus bilineatus diving beetle. The Hörbranzer Seeufer–Schmelzwiese sector provides safe nesting for many birds in dense reed and cattail stands. Visitors stay on marked paths because the area includes an old firing range with unexploded ordnance warnings. A route runs beside the renatured shoreline east of Hörbranz’s swimming lawn, where bulrushes and sedges grow thickly. In the west, a gated bay shelters reedbeds and waterfowl. Near the Mühlbach, beaver dams create small pools, and the Ruggbach restoration project will soon improve flood protection while widening wetland habitat.