From 1 November to 31 March, water sports are prohibited on the Steinhuder Meer, as well as on the Dümmer. Some sportspeople from the region now want to change this; they have submitted a petition to the Lower Saxony state parliament, which can be signed for six weeks.
The explanatory statement says: "For us water sports enthusiasts, the current regulation means that it is not possible to practise our hobbies on Lake Steinhude for a good third of the year. Anyone who is passionate about a hobby can imagine how much this hurts every year." This is why the initiators want to have the disturbance caused by sailors and other water sports enthusiasts checked to see whether it can be "kept within limits that nature can cope with without causing lasting damage". The last review of this kind was followed by the last amendment to the DStMVO ("Dümmer and Steinhuder Meer Ordinance"), which regulates the ban, in 2013.
Far-reaching spatial restrictions are better than temporal ones!"
The petition aims to allow water sports all year round at Steinhuder Meer and at the same time give nature the space it needs to regenerate. "Hence the request for an open-ended review, for example by the Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation (NLWKN), as to whether the spatial and temporal restrictions established in and before 2013 have scope for an opening."
In the end, every additional day on which water sports can be practised at Steinhuder Meer is a gain for the water sports community, the initiators appeal and immediately provide possible solutions: "Perhaps there is the possibility of a corridor between the surfing beach in Mardorf and the bathing island in Steinhude, as was once the case many years ago? Maybe we can achieve different time-based authorisations?" Or perhaps the area on the northern shore, which is just under one square kilometre in size and is subject to a somewhat shorter navigation ban, could be opened throughout.
"This petition does not want to prejudge the answer to these questions, but would like to express a general preference: Far-reaching spatial restrictions are better than temporal ones!"
