The Drentsche Aa area comprises a complex of brook valleys in the North of the Netherlands. Together, the brooks constitute one of the last relatively unspoilt river systems on the North German Plain. In terms of landscape, natural beauty and biodiversity, the area is considered unique. Particularly unique are the water meadows which border the small streams that meander through the wide valleys gouged out during the last ice age. These meadows have always been very wet and were mainly used by farmers for haymaking in summer. As a result of the high water table and the continuous off-take of organic material over the centuries, a very rich and diverse herbal flora has developed. The water meadows are the primary object of nature conservation in the area.

In the 1960’s, the landscapes and the biodiversity that the old type of farming had generated was threatened by agricultural modernisation, including the heavy use of fertilisers, pesticides and machinery, land ‘rationalisation’, drainage, river canalisation and so on, that swept across age-old landscapes all over Europe. That is when the Dutch State Forest Service officials took the initiative to fight this destruction in the DRA area. Their good relationships with the then