Frastanzer Ried, Nature reserve in Frastanz, Austria

Frastanzer Ried is a flat fen of about 39 hectares between Frastanz centre and the Felsenau, lying at 462 to 466 metres above sea level with almost no gradient. It consists of extensive litter meadows and small fragments of riverside forest, fed by artesian springs; together with the adjoining alluvial woodland on the Ill it covers about 62.3 hectares. The Walgauautobahn reduced its extent, and it remains the largest wet-meadow area of the Walgau.

A 1685 chronicle by Georg Prugger records a spring here whose drinking water was piped to Feldkirch, a supply that lasted with changes until the 1950s. On 15 June 1910 the Ill burst its banks at three points and flooded the Ried into a large lake. In 1915 the landowners formed a Riedgenossenschaft, today an Agrargemeinschaft. In 1923 a Innsbruck flying company built an airfield here, used by a glider club from 1952 until the licence was revoked in 1962.

The name comes from the local dialect "Frascht'ner Ried", and the meadow is still mown as Streuwiese by the Agrargemeinschaft, the landowners' cooperative founded in 1915. The Vorarlberger Volksblatt reported in July 1923 on plans for an airfield here, and from 1952 a glider club used the Ried as a take-off and landing strip until the permit was revoked in 1962.

The reserve lies between Frastanz centre and the Felsenau, bordered by the L 190 Vorarlberger Strasse to the north and the Rungeldonweg to the west and south. The whole protected area sits at only 462 to 466 metres above sea level, so the ground is almost flat. The Walgauautobahn passes about 500 metres to the north-east.

The site hosts six of the ten native amphibian species found in the region plus four of the six reptile species in Vorarlberg. This high concentration makes it a particularly valuable habitat for these animals.