Limestone cliffs south of the Iberg

Limestone cliffs south of the Iberg IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area
Limestone rocks, which were created by landslides, characterize the protected area.
location	Bad Sooden-Allendorf in the Werra-Meißner district in Hesse .
surface	47.3 hectares
Identifier	1636028
WDPA ID	163985
Geographical location	51 ° 16 '  N , 10 ° 3'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 16 '5 "  N , 10 ° 3' 11"  E
Setup date	1995
particularities	Special protection as a nature reserve and part of the Natura 2000 area “Kalkklippen der Gobert”.

The limestone cliffs south of the Iberg are a nature reserve on the Muschelkalk ridge of the Gobert in the district of Bad Sooden-Allendorf in the Werra-Meißner district in eastern North Hesse . The extensive beech forests in the Allendorfer Stadtwald, which are no longer or only rarely used for forestry, are protected. Characteristic features of the area, which lies directly on the border with Thuringia , are the steep, open rocky slopes with their typical vegetation sequences that have arisen from landslides or landslides .

Geographical location

The nature reserve "Kalkklippen south of the Iberg" includes the beech forest complex in the eastern part of the Bad Sooden-Allendorf district. The area borders on the Thuringian Eichsfeld and is a continuation of the mountains Iberg ( 426.1  m ) and Hesselkopf ( 504.4  m ) in Thuringia . To the north-west lies Asbach , a district of the Thuringian community Asbach-Sickenberg in the district of Eichsfeld .

The reserve belongs to the " Geo-Naturpark Frau-Holle-Land ". In terms of its natural surroundings , it is assigned to the “ Gobert ” sub-unit of the “ northwestern edge of the Thuringian basin ”.

Protected position

With the designation as a nature reserve in September 1995 by an ordinance of the regional council in Kassel , the "orchid- and hardwood-rich beech forests with the limestone quarries and steep rock slopes as a habitat for the sometimes rare and endangered plant and animal species that occur there were to be preserved and secured in the long term . “ The protected area has a size of 47.3 hectares, has the national identifier 1636028 and the WDPA code 163985.

Together with the “Hessian Switzerland near Meinhard” nature reserve to the south, the “limestone cliffs south of the Iberg” form the fauna-flora-habitat area 4726-350 “Kalkklippen der Gobert”. The 289.22 hectare FFH area extends over a height of 300  m to 569  m and is part of the Natura 2000 protected area system networked across Europe.

To the west it borders directly on part of the FFH area 4825-302 "Werra- und Wehretal" and to the east on the 716 hectare Thuringian FFH area 4726-320 "Stein-Rachelsberg-Gobert", with its natural beech forests and semi-arid grasslands has a similar biotope and species configuration on Muschelkalk. It is entirely within the EU bird sanctuary 4626-420 "Werra Bergland southwest Uder" whose large unfragmented area an important refuge for red kites , owls and waldbewohnende woodpecker species and the conservation area "Obereichsfeld". They belong to the Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal Nature Park, which was founded in 2011 .

The protected areas “Limestone cliffs south of the Iberg”, “Hessian Switzerland near Meinhard” and “Stein-Rachelsberg-Gobert” in the Eichsfeld-Werra Valley biotope network of the “ Green Belt ” are of particular importance . The major nature conservation project , which was declared a national natural monument by the decision of the Thuringian state parliament on November 9, 2018 , connects numerous rare habitats along the former inner-German border and is intended to contribute to the preservation of biological diversity.

nature

The reserve has extensive forests characterized by beech trees.

The vegetation is dominated by the large forest communities of the "woodruff beech forest" and the "Central European orchid-lime-beech forest". Due to their abundance of orchids and hardwood stocks , the forests are considered to be of national importance and were one of the main reasons for designating them as a nature reserve and Natura-2000 area. "Woodruff beech forests" occur on the slopes in the protected area that are not too steep, while "orchid beech forests" have developed on the lime-rich steep slopes that are favored by warmth. On the limestone scree beneath the rock walls, you can still find “maple-linden slope rubble forests”.

Yew trees can still be found in large numbers in the forest as the second layer of trees under beeches.

The name Iberg was derived from the yew tree that has survived in the region to this day. In Germany, the only naturally occurring, native conifer species is on the Red List of Endangered Species and is particularly protected under the Federal Nature Conservation Act, as its population has been greatly decimated over the centuries. In the district and in the neighboring Eichsfeld it has one of the most important occurrences in the country and is almost always found on the calcareous soils. Because of the still quite high number of yew trees, the art historian and photographer Thomas Wiegand described the yew as the characteristic forest tree of Werraland.

The forests in the protected area of ​​the Allendorfer Stadtwald are completely in the municipal ownership of Bad Sooden-Allendorf. 18.8 hectares are under process protection as "border management forest" and have been withdrawn from use. The other areas are managed sustainably.

The area is particularly significant in terms of vegetation due to its rich variety of orchids. In addition to the lady's slipper and the fly ragwort, there are also various species of the forest birds , the orchid and the stendelwurzen . Some rock areas along the "Green Belt" have blue-grass turf of varying degrees , which are viewed as an ice age relic . Notable plant species here are the mountain vetch , vegetable black salsify , knotty grass lily , earth sedge , brown-red stendelwort , mountain medicinal herb and early flowering thyme . Of the extremely rare species on the Hesse Red List, mountain thistle , forked hawkweed and broad-leaved laser herb can be found on the blue grass slopes .

Geological importance

The limestone plates that surround the Thuringian Basin extend with their northwestern edge plates in the area of ​​the Ringgau , the Wanfrieder Werrahöhen and the Gobert as far as Hesse. The Gobert, with the nature reserves "Hessian Switzerland near Meinhard" and "Kalkklippen south of the Iberg", is a so-called Zeugenberg , which has already been referred to as the Zeugengebirge due to its size. The Eichenberg-Gotha-Graben branching off from the Leinetalgraben separated the heavily structured Gobert massif from the original rock formation of the edge plates.

The limestone quarries in the area are considered geologically significant. Cliffs caused by landslides and mountain fall-like terminations of Muschelkalk incurred should occur nowhere as common in Germany as in the area of the two protected areas of Gobert and southerly nature reserve " Boyneburg and send bei Breitau ". They are considered to be the largest active landslide areas in Hesse.

Rockslides or landslides can occur in times of high rainfall at the geological layer boundary between the Lower Muschelkalk and the Upper Buntsandstein below , which is called Röt . Rainwater seeps into the crevices and crevices of the shell limestone and meets the clay-colored red that swells and becomes fluid. As a result, the limestone above the red starts to move and becomes unstable. The rocky areas that come off move gradually down the valley on the pulpy red and create gorges . These enable increased seepage of precipitation , which accelerates the so-called mass displacement process. The last rock masses erupted in 1956 with the landslide on Schickeberg and in 1985 with the landslide on the northern slope of the Hörne . It is feared that the deep crevices and crevices in the Muschelkalk already indicate further breaks in the future.

Tourist development

The area is hardly accessible by hiking trails and forest roads. The Rheanuspfad (26) from Bad Sooden-Allendorf to the Hörne touches the protected area on the western edge. In the east, along the “Green Belt”, the former Kolonnenweg runs along which the “ Werra-Burgen-Steig X5” and the “Eichsfeld-Wanderweg” run.

literature

• Office for Applied Ecology and Forest Planning: Basic data acquisition for FFH area No. 4726-350 "Kalkklippen der Gobert" . Prepared on behalf of the Kassel Regional Council. Kassel, February 2005.
• Lothar and Sieglinde Nitsche, Marcus Schmidt: Nature reserves in Hessen , Volume 3, cognitio Verlag, Niedenstein 2005, ISBN 3-932583-13-2 .

Web links

Commons : Limestone cliffs south of the Iberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Classification of natural areas according to Otto Klausing in the Hessen Environmental Atlas at atlas.umwelt.hessen.de ; accessed on May 11, 2019.
2. ↑ Quoted from the ordinance on the nature reserve "Kalkklippen south of the Iberg" of September 25, 1995 in the State Gazette for the State of Hesse, edition 42/1995 of October 16, 1995, p.
3. ^ "Limestone cliffs south of the Iberg" in the world database on protected areas; accessed on May 11, 2019.
4. ^ Ordinance on the Natura 2000 areas in Hessen in the Law and Ordinance Gazette for the State of Hessen. Part I - No. 4, dated January 16, 2008.
5. ↑ Profile of FFH area 4726-350 “Kalkklippen der Gobert” on the website of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN); accessed on May 11, 2019.
6. ↑ Profile of FFH area 4825-302 “Werra- und Wehretal” on the website of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN); accessed on May 11, 2019.
7. ↑ Profile of FFH area 4726-320 "Stein-Rachelsberg-Gobert" on the website of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN); accessed on May 11, 2019.
8. ↑ Profile of the EU bird sanctuary 4626-420 "Werrabergland southwest Uder" on the website of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN); accessed on May 11, 2019.
9. ↑ Landscape protection areas of the Eichsfeld district on the website of the Thuringian State Institute for Environment and Geology; accessed on May 11, 2019.
10. ^ "The Green Belt of Thuringia - National Natural Monument" on the website of the Thuringian Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation; accessed on May 11, 2019.
11. ↑ List of habitats occurring in Germany in Appendix I of the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive; accessed on May 11, 2019.
12. ↑ Thomas Wiegand: Trees from the Werraland - A photo documentation . Published by the Kreissparkasse Eschwege, 1984.
13. ↑ "Grenzwirtschaftswald" is an outdated term that is no longer in use today. According to the current terminology, the usage information is given as "Forest out of regular operation" (Wald ar B.).
14. ↑ Basic data acquisition for FFH area No. 4726-350 "Kalkklippen der Gobert" created by the Office for Applied Ecology and Forest Planning. s. 9 f.
15. ↑ Lothar and Sieglinde Nitsche, Marcus Schmidt: Nature reserves in Hessen, Volume 3. P. 20 f.
16. ↑ The sign of the Eichsfeld hiking trail is a six-spoke red wheel on a white background, which is intended to remind of the Principality of Eichsfeld and the 700-year membership in the Electorate of Mainz.