!!!Schilfrohr

Reed (Phragmites communis), hardy grass with sharp-edged leaves, grows 
to about 4 m high in water up to 2 m deep. The young shoots 
are edible. Reed covers approximately 180 km%%sup 2/% (in Austria 
approximately100 km%%sup 2/% of  Lake Neusiedl. Only the reed 
which grows in the national parks and the nature reserves surrounding 
bird nesting grounds is protected. As the production of stuccowork 
mats has dramatically decreased in Austria (virtually restricted to 
Purbach, Rust), only 10-15 % of the reed is harvested in the 
winter. From an ecological perspective, increased usage of reed as a 
renewable natural resource would be desirable. Today only a few reed 
farmers use reed (cut to a length of 1.6 m) as roofing material.

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The reed belt on the both the western and eastern side of the lake as 
well as the reed islands form the habitat for deer, wild boar, foxes, 
musk rats and, in some cases, otters, and provide water foul and birds 
of the wetlands with ample nesting grounds (purple, silver and grey 
herons, the European spoonbill and the greylag goose). 
"Schluichten", the Austrian word for canals cut into the 
reed belt, allow for access from the lakeshore to the open water; 
however, most of these canals have been silted up. Reactivating these 
canals could lead to an improvement in the flow of water between the 
lake and the spawning areas.

!Literature
J. Werner, Fischerei- und Schilfwirtschaft am Neusiedler 
See, 1992.


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