Griend

Griend is a small, uninhabited, Dutch island in the Wadden Sea, lying around 20 kilometres south of Terschelling. It is one of the West Frisian Islands, and belongs to the municipality of Terschelling. The island currently has an area of around 0.1 km².

History

In the Middle Ages, the island was inhabited, and on it a walled settlement and a monastery could be found. As a result of the continuous erosion of the coast, Griend became smaller over time. In 1287, the settlement was abandoned, and from that time until the eighteenth century, Griend was inhabited by a few farmers, who built their houses on artificial hills. Around 1800, Griend still had an area of 0.25 km², but the island was moving to the southeast at a speed of 7 metres a year. By this time, all of its inhabitants had abandoned the island, and from then on was it used by inhabitants of Terschelling as a grazing area for sheep, and for the making of hay. Also, on the island the eggs of gulls and terns were gathered for consumption.

In 1916, the right to mow grass on the island was bought by the Vereniging Natuurmonumenten, a union devoted to the protection of nature, which also tried to prevent the gathering of eggs by guarding the bird colonies. After the Afsluitdijk was completed in 1933, the rate of erosion increased even further. Despite that, the island still exists up to this day, even though it is smaller than before, and its current location is to the southeast of its location in the Middle Ages.

Griend now

Nowadays, the island is uninhabited with the exception of a cabin, which in summer is being used by bird watchers and biologists. Griend is not accessible to the general public.

Because Griend is unprotected by dykes, the island is slowly moving eastward. To prevent the island from vanishing altogether, some measures have been made to protect it: along its southern edge, a few dams were built, and around 1990 the island was strengthened by building a low sand dike along the north side. Since then, the process of erosion has changed into a process of gradual growth.

Nature

On Griend, the largest colony of the sandwich tern in Western Europe can be found: every year, around 10.000 pairs of this species breed on the island. Besides that, also the common tern, the arctic tern, the common eider, the common shelduck, the eurasian oystercatcher, the common redshank, and occasionally the short-eared owl breed on the island. During the building of the sand dike, the island also was colonized by the wood mouse.

Up to today, Griend is managed by the Vereniging Natuurmonumenten.