Kalkklippen-Buchenwald nature reserve near Ainkhausen

The nature reserve Kalkklippen-Buchenwald near Ainkhausen with a size of 4.9 hectares is located east of Ainkhausen in the urban area of Arnsberg in the Hochsauerlandkreis . It was designated as a nature reserve (NSG) by the Hochsauerlandkreis in 1998 with the Arnsberg landscape plan. The NSG goes almost to the hamlet of Ainkhausen. The Luerwald nature reserve borders directly to the west.

Area description

The NSG is a conspicuous hilltop that drops about 70 meters steeply to the southwest to the Bieberbachtal. In the NSG there are oak-beech forest and beech forest. Several limestone rocks and a former limestone quarry with field walls up to 10 m high are located in the protected area. Below the hilltop, flat rock ridges of the Kulmkiesel and plate limestone emerge.

The quarry is mostly overgrown with pioneer trees. The quarry floor is open and heavily ruderalized. A special feature of the NSG are the strikingly sharp differences in forest vegetation in the area. In the hilltop area and on the upper slope of the mountain there is a grove beech forest with common oaks and numerous coppice relics as well as a former spruce area with growing young beeches, which was cleared by wind throw. On the lower slope of the mountain there is a partially well-drained basiphile beech forest in consistently strong tree wood with an old wood character and rarer species such as swallowweed, finger sedge and meadow cowslip.

Protection purpose

The NSG is to protect the forest area with species inventory. As with all nature reserves in Germany, the protection designation indicated that the area was declared a nature reserve “because of the rarity, special character and beauty of the area”.