Freiwald and Weinsberger Wald

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All Upper Austria room units

The Freiwald and Weinsberger Wald spatial unit is one of 41 Upper Austrian spatial units and is located in the lower Mühlviertel .

location

The spatial unit comprises the northern and northeastern part of the Freistadt district and the northeastern part of the Perg district . A small gap near Kronberg (municipality of St. Georgen am Walde) divides the area into two parts. The Freiwald forms the border with the Czech Republic and continues in the neighboring Waldviertel , the Weinsberg Forest forms a large part of the Mühlviertel border with Lower Austria . A clear boundary between the two forests cannot be determined, but it can be assumed where the federal highway 38 cuts the area from east to west.

The area of Freiwald and Weinsberger Wald is 249.73 km², of which 88% are in the Freistadt district. The highest point in the area is the Viehberg near Sandl at 1112  m above sea level. A.

The following municipal areas are largely located in Freiwald and Weinsberger Wald (starting in the north): Windhaag near Freistadt , Sandl , St. Oswald , Weitersfelden , Liebenau , Königswiesen , St. Georgen am Walde , Dimbach , Waldhausen .

The spatial unit is surrounded by the following Upper Austrian spatial units (from north to south): Leonfeldner Hochland , Zentralmühlviertler Hochland and Aist-Naarn-Kuppenland .

Characteristic

  • Heavily forested (60 to 70% of the area) hilly country between 700 and 1100 meters above sea level.
  • Forests with a high proportion of spruce are largely used intensively for forestry purposes. The area is well developed and there is partial clear-cutting. The near-natural forests (beech-fir, ash-maple) only exist in remnants or as a narrow forest border.
  • The spatial unit includes the central European watershed between the Danube , Thaya and Elbe , and the Waldaist and Kamp also arise here . There are near-natural, unregulated rivers with natural occurrences of: otters , freshwater pearl mussels and crabs . Woods accompanying the banks ("meadow brooks") are rarely found, gray alder galleries are only available on the Maltsch .
  • The available meadows are used agriculturally, mostly these are moist meadow remnants in Bachtal lowlands. The most common use is pasture farming, arable farming has a very small share. The meadows used extensively for agriculture are partly rich in typical, natural Mühlviertel cultural landscape elements. There is a tendency towards abandonment and reforestation of nutrient-poor locations.
  • There are many large mountain pine raised bogs (the largest: Tanner Moor ), also pine bogs and a number of smaller, peated raised bogs, which are often surrounded by near-natural spruce edge forests. But also forest-free, nutrient-poor fens can be found scattered in larger forest areas.
  • In the high areas there are fallow land with a high level of biodiversity and in some cases with internationally significant meadow types ( alpine cottongrass meadows, grasslands ). There are also remnants of typical Mühlviertel high-altitude mosaic landscapes: block heaths, stone walls and heaps of reading stones, groups of hedges and bushes, birch groves, very rarely juniper heaths and old martyrs. There are also significant bird populations such as the corncrake , black grouse , whinchat , owl , woodpecker species and eagle owl .
  • Few small village centers with a tendency to emigrate. The agricultural settlement took place through square and three-sided yards .

literature

  • Office of the Upper Austrian Provincial Government, Nature Conservation Department (Ed.): Nature and Landscape / Guiding Principles for Upper Austria. Volume 20: Freiwald and Weinsberger Forest spatial unit . Linz 2007 ( pdf [accessed February 17, 2017]).

Web links