Kerpen nature reserves

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The Kerpener nature reserves Dickbusch, Lörsfelder Busch, Steinheide (448 hectares) and Blatzheimer Bürge (85 hectares) as well as Kerpener Bruch and Parrig (329 hectares) lie in the northern and northeastern semi-arc around the city of Kerpen near Cologne . They are part of the Rhineland Nature Park .

Forest and heather islands

Middle Woodpecker ( Dendrocopos medius )

The self-contained bush and heather areas from the Buir motorway exit to Lörsfeld Castle are remnants (island biotopes ) of the old Bürgewald in the northwest around Hambach near Niederzier , which has fallen victim to lignite mining there or is still falling. The Bürgewald had been an imperial hunting ban forest since the Middle Ages , but it was allowed to be used jointly by the 49 neighboring villages. The history of this forest is dealt with in the article Arnold von Arnoldsweiler .

The deciduous trees of this wet forest are mainly composed of oaks and hornbeams with winter linden trees . In the troughs with by the loess caused waterlogging grow lily of the valley . The vegetation today suffers from the lowering of the groundwater level , which the deep open pit mining of lignite requires.

The 71 hectare fauna and flora habitat of the Steinheide , which was formerly used by the German Armed Forces, was presented to the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation for Nature Conservation, Homeland and Home Affairs at a ceremony on March 17, 2015 in a ceremony by the Federal Agency for Real Estate Transferring cultural maintenance. An abandoned gravel pit adjoins the Steinheide, on the steep slopes of which swifts nest. It is still partly used today by Michael Schumacher's family as a cart track.

Floodplain forests

Erft in the Kerpen nature reserve

The break areas Parrig and Kerpener fraction are remnants of the formerly widespread hardwood the outside of oaks, elms and alders in the river valley of the Erft . These areas are the oldest nature reserves in the northern Ville brown coal area. After 1996, smaller remaining areas on the Erft, or better between the Große and Kleine Erft, were placed under nature protection, such as the Horrem urban forest and areas around Hemmersbach Castle and the old Erft loop at the sewage treatment plant near Sindorf, which is to be returned to a renatured Erft in the long term .

On particularly sensitive fauna different are toads species , woodpeckers ( Middle Spotted Woodpecker ) and honey buzzard to name. Also, Red Kite , Gray Heron and the rare egrets were sighted.

Kerpener Bruch wetland

In autumn 2010, the forest administration was able to use funds from the so-called substitute levy for construction measures that intervene in nature to set up a shallow water biotope about 40 X 75 meters in size in the Kerpener Bruch near Autobahn 61. For this purpose, a new water inlet was created from the Erft. The area is not accessible.

Green bridges

In 2014/15, RWE Power built a green bridge over Autobahn 61 south of Lörsfeld Castle to compensate for the destruction of the landscape in the Hambach opencast mine . The bridge connects the nature reserves with the Parrig on the other side of the A 61 and enables game passage . The bridge may not be stepped on, it is still possible to cross the motorway using the farm road to Parrig. Another green bridge crosses the new route of the Autobahn 4 near the hamlet of Geilrath , which connects the Steinheide with the Dickbusch.

General

The areas were reported to the EU under the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive of 1992. The protected areas are recorded under Natura 2000 .

The areas are accessible through parking spaces and hiking trails. Nature park administration, nature conservation associations and local providers also organize guided hikes.

Loersfeld Castle

We should also mention yet of between Lörsfelder bush and Parrig to lock Lörsfeld located landscape park , the visitors to the castle restaurant is open and during special events open to the public.

The Kerpener Bruch is part of a biotope network with the Boisdorf lake and the Fürstenberg maar , two open-cast mining lakes , and is also connected to the recultivated Marienfeld recreational area .

See also

Web links

supporting documents

  1. Press release of the BI of March 17, 2015
  2. ^ A paradise for birds and toads (online) , Rhein-Erft-Kreis weekend on May 11, 2011
  3. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from March 11, 2014 (accessed November 2014)