The Skjern Å area

The area at Provstgaards Jagthus has a history of its own, in the Middle Ages kings and bishops came here because the rich natural resources in and around the river gave the area a population and economically important position.

In the 1800s, farmers along the river began to build small irrigation canals to irrigate the meadows and grow more hay. Later, Hedeselskabet became involved in the project and in the 1870s they were responsible for the construction of the Store Skjern Å Canal or Dalga Canal (named after the founder of Hedeselskabet).

In the 1960s, Denmark's major land reclamation project was carried out around the River Skjern, where 4,000 hectares of meadows and wetlands from Borris to Ringkøbing Fjord were converted into arable land. - However, the drainage proved to be a disaster for the area, with large amounts of ochre and nutrients from the longwall mining areas now being discharged directly into Ringkøbing Fjord.

In 1987 it was decided to return the river to its original bed and restore the nature of the river valley.

In 1999, the largest nature restoration project in Northern Europe and in the history of Denmark, at the time, began.