This stretch of the Danube valley between the towns of Thalfingen and Lauingen comprises riverine wooded habitats as well as numerous oxbow lakes. It features the regulated river with six weirs, the large and important floodplains and small old water courses. The regulation of the river creates a sequence of reservoirs which are important for various wintering, breeding and resting waterbird and forest species. The common merganser (Mergus merganser) uses the Site for wintering, staging and breeding and is present in numbers that represent more than one per cent of the biogeographical population. Different fish species use the waterbodies as spawning ponds. The Site is important for yellow widelip orchid (Liparis loeselii) and lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus). Two extended former fen areas north of the river are now mainly cultivated and intensively used for agriculture and gravel extraction. There is a plan for the restoration of the Site.