The nature reserve Wisseler Dünen was placed under protection in 1968 and border directly on the municipality of Wissel. The area covers 80 hectares and serves primarily to preserve and develop the river dune complex, which is unique on the left bank of the Lower Rhine. Generally speaking, inland dunes are extremely rare habitats nowadays. In the Middle Ages, the floods of the Rhine, which had a different course at that time, deposited huge masses of sand in its inner bend. The predominantly prevailing westerly wind piled up the sand to form the dunes. In later times, nature revegetated them with plants of the sand dry grassland. Specialists such as the sand sedge and the silver grass can survive alongside mosses and lichens in the sparse, nutrient-poor, and extremely dry habitat. Typical inhabitants of the dunes are sand bees and sand beetles. Since the 16th century, people have used the area as sparse pastureland, keeping it free of scrub. The southwestern part of the dunes was leveled in the 1930s by the “Reichsarbeitsdienst” (Reich Labour Service) to build a glider airfield for the Hitler Youth and was used by the Kleve Gliding Club until a few years ago. Here one can find completely different vegetation. Distinctive flowering plants include thyme, cypress spurge, and field manure. The last three very dry years brought considerable changes in the flora of the inland dunes. More details about the protected area can be found on the website of the “Naturschutz-Zentrum im Kreis Kleve e.V.”.