Felsenberg-Berntal
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Felsenberg-Berntal nature reserve
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 Berntal, view from the Herxheimer Felsenberg |
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| location | Bad Dürkheim , Herxheim am Berg and Kallstadt , Vorderpfalz , Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany | |
| surface | 3 km² | |
| Identifier | NSG 7332-203 | |
| WDPA ID | 318388 | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 30 ' N , 8 ° 10' E | |
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| Setup date | 1954 (sub-area) or 2000 | |
The Felsenberg-Berntal nature reserve in the Bad Dürkheim district ( Rhineland-Palatinate ) is located on one of the foothills of the eastern Palatinate Forest , the so-called Haardt , towards the Rhine plain . The approximately 300 hectare area was placed under protection by ordinance of December 20, 1999 from January 2000. It consists of the Felsenberg and the Berntal . A section near Herxheim was already under protection as NSG Felsberg from 1954 . The Herxheimer karst cave in one of the mountain slopes is known for archaeological and biological finds.
geography
The nature reserve includes parts of the districts Leistadt in the city of Bad Dürkheim and Herxheim and Kallstadt in the Freinsheim community . The field names are from west to east Weidenhof, Felsenberg and Gauberger Hohl .
The Bern valley with the Felsenberg extends over a length of 1.2 km within the western fracture zone of the Upper Rhine Rift, first from the southwest to the northeast and then further to the east. It runs between Landesstrasse 517 (Leistadt– Weisenheim am Berg ) in the west and the German Wine Road ( Bundesstrasse 271 Kallstadt – Herxheim am Berg) in the east, and it borders on both roads. A fracture step in the northwest, the slope of the Felsenberg, is particularly pronounced.
history
The name Felsenberg declares himself with. Berntal is Barental meant; In the slopes of the so-called Lower Wiesbaden Formation , which were largely made of tertiary limestone , the seeping rainwater had washed out cavities that used to be used as shelter for bears .
Mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, most were vineyards abandoned on the slopes of Berntals lack of profitability and scrubby in the following period. In 2000 the entire Bern valley was placed under nature protection, as had already happened in 1954 with the Felsenberg on the northern flank of the valley. Maintenance measures by the Bad Dürkheim district group of Pollichia resulted in bushes being pushed back and the fallow vegetation developed through mowing and grazing into poor grassland . The Bern valley became an artificial dry valley , the rainwater of which has been pumped into the sewer system on Landesstrasse 517 towards Bad Dürkheim since the 1980s.
Biotopes
Geology, flora and fauna
The edge of the Bern Valley to the northwest and north is formed by a natural band of limestone. This is followed by a limestone slab characterized by tertiary weathering forms. Dry lawns have been preserved here, which are called headleaf , awl grass and steppe lawns because of their vegetation .
The biotope types are essentially sloes - privet bushes and ruderally shaped grasslands on former vineyards . Standard fruit trees have been planted on most of the cultivated areas . These are old regional varieties that are threatened in their existence.
There are birds in the nature reserve that are rather rare elsewhere, such as the bunting , woodlark and wheatear . In the case of plants, for. B. the blue-green fiber umbrella and various types of orchids . The rock gold star (Gagea bohemica), a particularly protected lily plant, occurs on the limestone band . The occurrence is unusual in that this species normally grows on substrates that are poor in lime. On the southern edge there are piles of stones built by human hands, so-called pocheln .
Herxheim Karst Cave
The largest cave is called "Herxheimer Karst Cave" and is located about 200 m northeast of the visible rock band near the federal road 271 . With a floor area of around 45 m², it comprises around 60 m³ of space. It is divided into two areas that are connected by crawlways. Overall, the cave is low and cannot be entered upright. Their age is estimated to be five million years. In addition to these two cave chambers, geologists suspect a whole "cave system". The reason for this is a geomagnetic survey that was carried out together with a geophysicist in 2006.
In the middle of the 19th century a man from Herxheim made small archaeological finds in the cave, in 1873 the historian Christian Mehlis carried out the first excavations, which brought further small finds such as rings and buckles made of metal. In the 1960s, residents filled the cave entrance because they saw children playing at risk. In 1998 the cave was reopened and explored on the initiative of local historian Eric Hass.
In 2012 the cave and its immediate surroundings with an area of 2914 m² were designated as a natural monument . For security reasons and to protect other possible finds, the cave entrance is locked; the cave may only be entered and further explored with the approval of the responsible authority, the district administration of Bad Dürkheim.
Which people once used the cave as a shelter is hidden in the dark of history; a bony arrowhead, found in the 1930s by the winemaker Wilhelm Gabel, made the earliest possible date; the animal bones were determined in 2005 at the University of Kiel with radiocarbon dating to about 4000 years. Since no DNA analysis was commissioned, the species is not known. Later users were probably Roman soldiers who left some coins in the cave and in the immediate vicinity.
About 20 lower animal species have already been discovered in the cave, which are adapted to life in caves . The specimens found in 2008 of the still little-described white cave isopod ( Trichoniscus helveticus ), which is a crustacean , as well as a double tail , which belongs to the superclass of the hexipedes , caused the most sensation . The classification of the double tail as Dilura campodea meinerti took place in autumn 2009 in the Spanish city of Valencia . The white cave ass turned out to be the first discovery for the Palatinate region and was only found in nine caves across Germany between 1993 and 2008.
Felsenberg
The southern flank of the Felsenberg slopes steeply and offers the well-known, widely visible view of the karst rock. On the northern side the land continues to rise slightly, and therefore the break line is easy to reach on foot. In this area, however, there is a rare flora and fauna that is very sensitive to visits by hikers. According to the Pollichia Association for Nature Research and Conservation , it is acutely threatened. He complains that more and more visitors are entering the restricted areas of the 50 hectare area.
Therefore, the area around the plateau of the Felsenberg was closed to hikers in August 2020. It will probably take a few years before nature has recovered and the closure can possibly be withdrawn.
Web links
- LANIS: Map of the "Felsenberg-Berntal" nature reserve
- Conservationists are sounding the alarm. Visitors trample the nature reserve in Bad Dürkheim on July 27, 2020 on swr.de, accessed on July 27, 2020
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Bad Dürkheim district : Ordinance on the "Felsenberg-Berntal" nature reserve. (PDF) December 20, 1999, accessed February 3, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Jürgen Link: "Karst cave" is a natural monument . In: Grünstadter Wochenblatt . Grünstadt July 26, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Eric Hass: A 4000 year old bone . In: Bad Dürkheim district (Hrsg.): Heimatjahrbuch 2011 . Verlag Englram Partner, Haßloch / Pfalz 2010, ISBN 978-3-926775-63-4 , p. 148-157 .
- ↑ a b The Rhine Palatinate : Karst cave as a treasure trove . Local edition Bad Dürkheimer Zeitung February 10, 2010.
- ↑ a b First find in the Palatinate . In: Official Journal of the Freinsheim Association . No. 44 , November 13, 2008, pp. 11 ( freinsheim.com [PDF; 1.1 MB ; accessed on December 17, 2010]).
- ↑ Erhard Fritsch: The caves of the Rettenbach valley near Bad Ischl - 1st part . In: Natural history station of the city of Linz (Ed.): Apollo . Episode 44, 1976, p. 6 ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed December 7, 2011]).
- ↑ Visitors trample the nature reserve in Bad Dürkheim. In: www.swr.de. SWR Aktuell, accessed on August 28, 2020 .
At the Bechsteinkopf | At the Goldberg | At the Hinterberg | At the Kämmertsberg | At the Limburgberg | At the mud mountain | On the crow's cave | Drachenfels (Middle Palatinate Forest) | Felsenberg-Berntal | Forster Bruch | In the tree garden | In high law | In the Rüster | Lochbusch-Königswiesen | Marlachwiesen | Mittelberg