Enknach

The Enknach is a small river in the Braunau district of Upper Austria. It begins in a bog near Gietzing on the border between Kirchberg and Feldkirchen. For the first three kilometres it disappears underground before reappearing and flowing north through meadows and woods. Its most important tributary is the Fillmannsbach, which joins at Dietzing with a larger catchment area. The Enknach itself drains 142 square kilometres and carries an average of 0.48 cubic metres of water per second. For centuries mills and fish ponds have used its steady flow, though many weirs now stand idle. The upper Enknach remains fairly wild and forms part of a European protected wetland. Below Pischelsdorf the banks are reinforced and the river runs on embankments. At Ranshofen it passes through a protected beech and oak wood and an alder-ash floodplain alive with eighteen kinds of fish.