Landscape protection area Niederbredenscheid / Elfringhausen
The 2,343.74 hectares large protected landscape area Low Bredenscheid / Elfring Hausen is cross-border in the two county's cities Hattingen and Sprockhövel the Ennepe-Ruhr district in North Rhine-Westphalia . It was set up in 1998 in the course of drawing up the landscape plan for the Ennepe-Ruhr district and bears the serial number 3.2.10 in the partial plan for the Hattingen / Sprockhövel area. Because of the similar natural and usage conditions, the landscape protection areas numbers 3.2.2 to 3.2.18 are combined.
geography
It is a strongly structured hilly landscape of the natural spatial unit Niederbergisch-Märkisches Hügelland with heights of approx. 150 to 310 m above sea level. The area is traversed by numerous bottom and notch valleys, with the main streams sloping towards the Ruhr , while the notch valleys of the tributaries run in the direction of the hills. In the stream valleys and Siepen , grassland use dominates. In addition to intensively used greasy meadows, there are also some wet meadows or fallow land. In particular, the upper reaches of the small streams are forested and partly equipped with near-natural alder borders (the most ecologically significant stream valleys are defined as nature reserves or landscape components).
The ridges (harrows), the knolls and the steep slopes are mostly made up of beech forests with a varying proportion of oak. The holly (Ilex) is often dominant in the shrub layer. Oak and beech forests only occur sporadically. Old wood stocks are particularly located on the elongated Härtling ridge (ecologically valuable old wood stocks are set as protected landscape components). The proportion of coniferous wood (mostly spruce) in the total forest area is around 15 percent. The flat or slightly sloping areas are mostly used for agriculture, with grassland use slightly outweighing arable land, especially on wetter locations. Most of the agricultural land is still relatively richly structured by hedges, groups of trees and trees. Many farm locations are surrounded by groups of trees and trees, some of which are older. Numerous orchards, some of which are used extensively, are relatively scattered. Individual or scattered buildings are predominant in the protected area.
Spring locations such as spring pots or swamp springs are relatively numerous in forests or the beginnings of sieves. The subsequent streams are relatively natural in less densely populated areas and in the forest. In the vicinity of built-up areas and in areas with more intensive agricultural use, sections of the route have been straightened and the original wooded banks removed. Through intensive use of pasture along the streams, bank areas and stream bed are particularly endangered, the same applies to spring pools in pastureland. Ponds for fish farming have been created on almost all streams, some of which are still used today, but some have also been abandoned. Ponds outside the Bachtal are located on farm sites with intensively used surroundings. Outcrops such as B. Quarries occur scattered in the area, a part is no longer used and is left to its own devices. This also includes cuts through traffic routes with richly structured vegetation and the like. a. also crevice societies.
Particularly worthy of protection because of its diversity, peculiarity and beauty of the richly structured, small-scale cultural landscape with the forests with old wood stocks and because of its special importance for recreation (The area lies in the catchment area of the large cities of Essen , Bochum and Wuppertal . Especially the area of Elfringhauser Schweiz is especially busy on the weekends).
