Forest Upjever
The Upjever Forest is a forest area west of the town of Schortens in the Friesland district . The forest area, originally laid out with oaks and beeches, now has a size of around 740 hectares and over time has developed into a mixed forest with a high proportion of coniferous trees. Today the forest is a popular recreational area .
location
The forest is located west of the town of Schortens and takes up the entire south-west of the town. Only a small part of the outermost forest area in the southwest belongs to the city of Jever . The forest is around seven kilometers in length and around three kilometers in width. At the southwestern edge of the forest area is the 43 hectare nature reserve swamp moor Dose .
history
The name Upjever is mentioned for the first time in 1420 in the so-called Stader Kopiar, a Bremen archdeaconate register . In this list of all churches in Friesland, a Curia in Upjevere is listed as the church's farm .
In the Middle Ages, the heath area came into the possession of the Jever rulership . Around 1551 there was a manorial farm with a sheep farm on the site of today's forestry . During this time, the reforestation of the forest should have started. According to a report by the Waddewarden pastor Braunsdorf in the Gesammelte Nachrichten der Herrschaft Jever , the first acorns were sown by Maria von Jever herself . The forest initially consisted of oaks and beeches .
During the French occupation of Jeverland, the wood of the forest for the fortification of Wangerooges , Baltrums and Heppens was plundered and the tree population was greatly decimated. It was not until 1823 that the forest was reforested. At the beginning of the 20th century, the forest had an area of over 1000 hectares.
In 1934, larger parts of the forest were cleared for the construction of an airfield . The airbase Jever began operations on May 1, 1936th
In the 1980s there was a tree population with around 75% coniferous trees such as pine , spruce , larch and Douglas fir, and around 25% of hardwood trees such as oak, beech, ash , maple , birch and alder .
Renaturation in the Upjever Forest
In the 18th century there were still more than 20 bodies of water in the Upjever Forest that were not economically usable for the people at the time and were therefore considered "unland". The waters were therefore drained and reforested. The waters disappeared and with it the variety of plants and animals.
At the initiative of the forester Carsten Friedrich Streufert, plans arose in the forest administration to transform parts of the coniferous forest back into a moorland. However, the plans could only be implemented when, at the end of the 1990s, compensation areas for large projects such as the JadeWeserPort or the new Wilhelmshaven power plant had to be found and identified. With the help of these compensation areas, the plans could be financed.
In the meantime, three renaturation projects have been implemented or started in the Upjever Forest. In 2005, the first section in the area of the Krickmeere was turned back into a moor area. The water drainage was specifically prevented and so the water level rose again from below. From 2010/2011 the second part of the Krickmeer was freed from coniferous wood and restored as a bog.
The 3rd renaturation project is the so-called Engelsmeer . The Engelsmeer is a field name at the point where the Alte Mühlenweg in Schortens merges into the Upjever Forest. In the Middle Ages there was a body of water at this location in which, at the beginning of Christianization, baptism was performed by submerging the person being baptized or half standing in the water. The Engelsmeer was still shown on the maps from 1779 and 1844. From 1806, however, the moored area was drained, drained and planted with conifers.
The project for the renaturation of the Engelsmeer started in autumn 2008. On a total area of 8 hectares, the forest administration began to restore the old Engelsmeer to its original form as a moor area with free water areas. The project is financed from compensation payments for a building area in Jever.
Attractions
The association “Gattersäge Upjever e. V. ”operates a horizontal frame saw that is around 100 years old in the Upjever forest . In addition to operating the saw, the association provides educational work with a focus on conveying the economic and ecological relationships and the concept of sustainability in forest use.
The old forester's house is located next to today's forest ranger's office. The previous building was built in 1804 under the government of Princess Friederike Auguste Sophie and used as a building for the forest officials. After the officials moved into the former residential building of the crown leaseholder, the building was converted into the Zum Forsthaus Upjever restaurant . In 1914 the old building was demolished due to its disrepair and replaced by a new building. Today the traditional house houses a restaurant and hotel.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Werner Brune (Ed.): Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon , Volume 1–3. Brune, Wilhelmshaven 1986–1987. Volume 3, page 352
- ↑ a b The moors have returned to the Upjeverschen Forest , accessed on January 5, 2013
- ↑ In 2003 the districts of Friesland and Wittmund founded a joint area agency together with the city of Wilhelmshaven, which brokered compensation areas and thus made renaturation projects possible.
- ↑ a b Where Christians were once baptized , accessed January 5, 2013
- ^ Association "Gattersäge Upjever e. V. “- About us , accessed on January 5, 2013
Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '33.6 " N , 7 ° 53' 29.1" E