History of the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park

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This article describes the history of the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park . The Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park is a national park planned for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in southwest Germany. It was planned to be the first national park in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland . Alternatively, the names were National Park Hunsrück , National Park Hochwald or National Park Idarwald proposed.

View of the Primstalsperre

Professional and political background

Location of the Hunsrück low mountain range with the area of ​​the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park

From 1970 to 2014, 15 national parks were established in Germany . In Rhineland-Palatinate there as the last German territorial state next to the Saarland none currently own National Park, although percentage has the largest forest density of all German states. The since 2011 ruling red-green coalition in Mainz Landtag was not least at the instigation of the Greens , according to the coalition agreement in search of a suitable area for the realization of a national park in the country.

Five regions in examination and selection process

In 2011, we initially discussed five alternative search regions in the Saargau and Hochwald area , the Black Forest high forest on the state border with Saarland together with the Idarwald , the Soonwald , areas in the Palatinate Forest and near Baumholder . In the pre-selection, it played a role that with a high proportion of state forests, conflicts with private forest owners should be largely avoided.

As the local authorities concerned showed no interest in the realization of a national park at the first three possible locations and the Baumholder military training area continues to be used for military purposes, the Idarwald-Hochwald was chosen. In addition, the majority of the areas here are in public hands and neighboring communities such as Morbach have indicated their approval, as they hope this will result in positive developments in tourism . The dialogue phase with the Hunsrück region began in May 2012.

On June 12, 2013, the Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister Ulrike Höfken presented the landscape of a national park in the Hunsrück to the public and the press in Züsch .

In July 2013, Saarland's Minister of the Environment, Anke Rehlinger , also spoke out in favor of a Hochwald-Idarwald National Park in the Hunsrück .

Location of the selected region

According to the specific plans, the future national park in Rhineland-Palatinate should cover an area of ​​9200 ha and, if necessary, also include a 920 ha area in the north of the Saarland . It would be integrated into today's Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park and would mainly affect areas that are in public hands and are currently still used economically as state forest .

The maximum planned size should extend between Mörschied ( Verbandsgemeinde Herrstein-Rhaunen ) in the northeast to Nonnweiler near the federal highway 1 in the Saarland district of St. Wendel in the southwest. Areas of the Verbandsgemeinden Thalfang ( district Bernkastel-Wittlich ) and Hermeskeil ( district Trier-Saarburg ) would also be included. Exceptions would be, in addition to the village of Börfink and the district of Muhl belonging to Neuhütten , including the hamlets and localities of Hujetsägemühle , Thranenweier and Hüttgeswasen .

With a total area of ​​about 10,120 ha (= 101.2 km²), the majority of about 92 km² will be in Rhineland-Palatinate and a further 9.2 km² will be in a small sub-area of ​​the Black Forest high forest in Saarland. The national park was the first in the two southwestern German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

Topography and geology

Erbeskopf from the northeast ( Wildenburg Castle )

If the plans were implemented, the planned national park would have included parts of the Idarwald and the Black Forest high forest; Significant mountains and elevations here include the Erbeskopf , the Wildenburger Kopf with Wildenburg Castle , as well as the Ruppelstein , Sandkopf , Friedrichskopf , Ringkopf (with a Celtic ring castle), Pfannenfelskopf or the Mörschieder Burr rubble dump .

Streams are, for example, the Idarbach that flows through the area in the northeast , the upper reaches of the Traunbach , or the Hohltriefbach as a tributary of the Kleine Dhron .

Conservation and biodiversity

View from the Erbeskopf

Hoch- und Idarwald are among the hotspots of biological diversity in Germany in the federal program for biological diversity . The biodiversity strategy envisages allowing ten percent natural forest development on publicly owned forest areas. Rhineland-Palatinate fulfills this task with areas of the state forest.

flora

26 different types of peat moss are already growing in the future national park area, the sundew can be detected after rewetting and renaturation. Lying in the project area

fauna

In the Hunsrück there are about 500 to 1000 of the nationwide 5000 to 7000 wild cats ( Felis silvestris silvestris ), a type of responsibility for biological diversity. The planned national park is meanwhile again a breeding area for the black storks (Ciconia nigra) that occur here again today .

Scientific support of the development

The collaboration began with the Birkenfeld environmental campus at Trier University of Applied Sciences. In April 2013, in a workshop on sustainable regional action in the national park, the preliminary regional setting with the external borders and objectives of the national park was presented, Environment Minister Höfken, the Birkenfeld District Administrator Schneider and around 100 regional decision-makers attended the event of the Rhineland-Palatinate Rural Academy with further prioritization involved in the master plan.

Tourism and related expectations and supporters

Saar-hunsrueck-climb-logo.jpg

The Saar-Hunsrück-Steig leads through the project area, the Hunsrück cycle path over the Erbeskopf, the highest elevation in the Hunsrück.

From the point of view of the Saarbrücken state government, the national park is also suitable for natural recreation and gentle tourism . Anke Rehlinger attaches great importance to the connection with environmental education and state maintenance: An entry gate into the national park from the Saarland should therefore be at a prominent point, Rehlinger is bringing the Keltenpark in Otzenhausen into the planning. In the north of the planned national park is Wildenburg Castle , the seat of the Hunsrück Association . As the operator of the Wildlife Enclosure and Wildcat Center Wildenburg , he appeals to participate in an online petition and to actively support a national park “that meets the international criteria ( IUCN )”.

Conflict and Discourse

In the case of the expansion of wind power in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, the installation of wind turbines would have to be dispensed with in the national park area. According to the Saarland Environment Minister, it is not possible to set up wind turbines directly in a national park. For areas that are not in public hands and can no longer be used for forestry in the future, there are talks about the exchange of land. Nature conservation associations welcomed the initiative to establish the national park. Several representatives of NABU Rhineland-Palatinate are calling for a. an allocation of seats to local politicians and nature conservation associations in the planned national park advisory board. In 2012 Greenpeace had advertised a combination solution with a corridor from Hochwald-Idarwald and a "Wilderness Area Soonwald" for the biotope network . Due to the historical fragmentation of the ecologically valuable beech forests by coniferous forests and roads, there are too few suitable areas for sufficiently large areas without wood use. However, resistance to the project continued to come from the wood industry in 2013 . One association has "the goal of preventing the national park in Rhineland-Palatinate." It is feared that renouncing around 50,000 solid cubic meters of wood annually will weaken the state economically. In the area around Morbach there are more than 550 jobs in the sawmills. People should not be excluded from the forest. The opponents of the Hunsrück National Park see an alternative in the expansion of the existing nature park. Opponents as well as supporters argue with the conservation of biodiversity and climate change: The forest harvested in forestry is a carbon sink because the wood remains in the products. On the other hand, firewood is no longer burned to the current extent and remains in the forest floor for a long time. Mixed forests and moors could also store carbon better than conifer monocultures.

decision

Opening event with Prime Minister Malu Dreyer

In December 2013 there was a vote among the citizens of the communities and districts affected by the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park project, who voted for a national park by a large majority.

In 2014, the two state governments agreed on the name and introduced approval laws to the mutually agreed state treaty between the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland on the establishment and maintenance of the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park (National Park Act) .

The national park opened in May 2015.

The central opening event of the national park took place on Whit Saturday, May 23, 2015, at the Hunsrückhaus (Erbeskopf).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SWR1 radio feature on the planned national park , June 13, 2013, accessed August 11, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hunsrück National Park - Why the forest is worth protecting - Dispute over the park , SWR television, September 15, 2013, accessed August 11, 2013.
  3. ↑ National Park in Hunsrück or Palatinate Forest? Five search regions for a new large protected area , SWR-Odysso, accessed August 25, 2013.
  4. ^ A national park in Rhineland-Palatinate , Ministry for the Environment, Agriculture, Food, Viticulture and Forests (RLP), accessed August 5, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b In the Dialogue on the National Park in Rhineland-Palatinate ( Memento from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Timetable and National Park forums until October 2013, accessed on August 6, 2013.
  6. ↑ Official press release (PDF; 18 kB) by the RLP Environment Minister from June 12, 2013.
  7. ^ A b c Evelyn Schneider: Saar Environment Minister Rehlinger is in favor of a cross-border national park. (No longer available online.) In: Saarbrücker Zeitung . July 31, 2013, archived from the original on February 27, 2014 ; Retrieved August 6, 2013 .
  8. ^ [1] SWR Landesschau aktuell Rheinland-Pfalz (online) from June 12, 2013
  9. ↑ [2] Focus Online Regional from June 12, 2013
  10. ↑ [3] Volksfreund.de from June 12, 2013
  11. ^ [4] Rhein-Zeitung (online) from June 12, 2013
  12. ↑ Article. In: Allgemeine Zeitung . June 12, 2013, accessed February 12, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Landscape Information System of Nature Protection Administration Rhineland-Palatinate NETGIS.
  14. ↑ Distribution of the European wildcat , BUND Wildcat Rescue Network, accessed on August 8, 2013.
  15. ^ Landesforsten Rheinland-Pfalz on the homepage of the Ministry for the Environment, Agriculture, Food, Viticulture and Forests in Rhineland-Palatinate.
  16. ↑ (PDF; 3.1 MB) Regional action in the national park , summary of the workshop with a map of the area , April 8, 2013. Accessed August 12, 2013.
  17. ↑ Wildfreigehege-Wildenburg - Hunsrückverein eV - Photo calendar on the National Park area and support for an online petition on the Hunsrück National Park , June 26, 2013, accessed August 8, 2013.
  18. ↑ National park in the Hunsrück endorsed by nature conservationists. Retrieved September 11, 2013 .
  19. ↑ Greenpeace presents a special report for national parks in Rhineland-Palatinate , October 11, 2012, accessed on August 24, 2013.
  20. ↑ Yes! zur Natur - No to the National Park ( memento of July 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), online petition, accessed on August 25, 2013.
  21. ^ Message from the citizens' vote , accessed on January 24, 2014
  22. ^ Press service Ministry for the Environment, Agriculture, Food, Viticulture and Forests - Rhineland-Palatinate. Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection - Saarland. Mainz, March 12, 2014, National Park. Höfken / Jost: it should be called “Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park” .
  23. ↑ http://www.nationalpark.rlp.de/fileadmin/website/downloads/gesetz_und_anlagen/Entw%C3%BCrfe_des_Nationalparkgesetzes_und_StaatsV-final.pdf
  24. ↑ http://geoportal.saarland.de/portal/de/fachlösungen/nationalpark-hunsrueck-hochwald.html
  25. ^ Presentation of the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Environment
  26. ↑ Central opening event of the National Park ( Memento from February 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )