Kalvebod Common/Vestamager, a large wildlife and nature reserve located close to Copenhagen. It offers wide expanses, where sun, light, and damp, salty earth are vital elements for the plants and animals that live on this littoral meadow.
1200 cows, deers, and horses make sure that the woods do not spread. Vestamager is also an important habitat for insects, toads, frogs, and salamanders because the area is neither sprinkled nor fertilized.
Vestamager and the sea around it is a reserve for wading birds. That means that the birds are protected against hunting. Part of the area is closed to visitors but the birdlife can be watched from bird towers.
The area consists of reclaimed sea bed, with a number of former islets making up small isolated hills; it was dammed and drained during the 1940s to serve as an artillery training range. After active military use ended in 1983, some of the area has been used for transportation infrastructure (motorway and railway in connection with the Øresund bridge), a landfill on the stip between the motorway and the ocean dyke, a golf course and the southern end of the Ørestad urban development. Most of the area, however, lies as lightly maintained parkland featuring a range of nature types, from young forests to tidal marshes; some areas are prevented from developing into forests by grazing livestock and game. After years of preparation the area was finally cleared of unexploded munitions and fully opened to the general public on October 15, 2010. Previously, because of the risk of unexploded munitions, walking outside the paths and roads was generally not allowed. A large area in the southwestern corner is set aside under the Natura 2000-scheme as an EU-recognized bird protection area to which the general public has no access.
You find a nature playground, café, and various activities at Nature Centre Vestamager. Here you can rent outdoor equipment, bicycles, or roller skates at symbolic prices, you can see current exhibitions, and get information about the nature and the trip on Vestamager.