Sababurg primeval forest
| Sababurg Primeval Forest Nature Reserve | |||
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| Location: | Hessen , Germany | ||
| Specialty: | Jungle-like biotope with above sea level 500 year old hat trees | ||
| Next city: | Hofgeismar , Reinhardswald | ||
| Surface: | 92 ha | ||
| Founding: | 1907 | ||
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The Sababurg primeval forest , also known as the primeval forest in the Reinhardswald , is a forest area that is under nature and landscape protection and has emerged from a hut forest.
It can be found near the Sababurg in the Reinhardswald in the northern Hessian district of Kassel . The naturally renewable forest is not the only primeval forest-like area in this area. It has been under protection since 1907, making it Hesse's oldest nature reserve .
The “rustic” character of the 92 hectare “primeval forest” is shaped by old hat trees . The mighty, gnarled “800 to 1000 year old oaks ” and thick or multi-stemmed beeches are witnesses to centuries of cultivation. In addition, "meter high fern" grows.
Geographical location
The jungle Sababurg is located in the core area of the Reinhard Forest in the unincorporated area Gutsbezirk Reinhardswald between the 2.4 km to the southwest lie Hofgeismarer district Beberbeck (estate with a castle) and the approximately 3.8 kilometers (each a straight line ) northern Gottsbüren (part of Trendelburg ). It is between 269 m (at the entrance in the north) and 336 m above sea level. NN (on the eastern border). To the east of its area is the Sababurg zoo located on the Sababurg , which, like the district named after the castle, belongs to Beberbeck. To the northeast, just outside the jungle, is the "Kuhberg" hill ( 326 m ). A tributary of the Diemel flows with the Holzape in the neighboring nature reserve Oberes Holzapetal in a south-east-north-west direction .
description
The Sababurg primeval forest is not a real primeval forest in the true sense of the word , it has rather emerged from a Hutewald , which after its use was not or only to a small extent managed for forestry and has therefore been undergoing the aging and renewal processes typical of forests for some time.
The peculiarity of its tree population is that each old individual tree is worthy of protection as a natural monument . The socialization of such a high number of such old trees is rare in western Central Europe today. The high proportion of dead wood in the area , which gives it a primeval forest-like character, and the associated biocenosis are outstanding . Many trees have reached an age and size that is not to be expected in a natural primeval beech forest, but was made possible here by being used as a light hut forest.
history
The Sababurg primeval forest was withdrawn from forest (and agricultural ) use as early as 1907 on an area of around 61 hectares . This makes it one of the first German nature reserves and the first Hessian nature reserve. This was done on the initiative of the Düsseldorf painter Theodor Rocholl , who became famous as a battle painter and created several of his landscape paintings in Reinhardswald and inspired numerous subsequent artists to study the "primeval forest". This is why the area that is completely owned by Hesse is still called the “painter reserve” today. Due to boundary changes in 1917, it grew to a maximum of 181 hectares. In the following years, however, it was recognized that large parts of this expansion area were not worthy of protection, so that the area was reduced to around 90 or 92 hectares in 1925 and received its present form.
The area known today as the “primeval forest” is - strictly biologically or ecologically speaking, not a primeval forest - but was originally a loose pasture forest, which was made up of old hat oak and beech and was created through the intensive use of woodland pastures of the Reinhardswald until the middle of the 19th century. The old name "Kuhberg" indicates that it was used as a pasture forest. The farmers' forest grazing rights were abolished in 1865.
Flora and fauna
The nature reserve was a total reserve from the beginning and has not been used for forestry since it was placed under protection. While many of the ancient, thick-trunked oaks and red beeches have reached their natural maximum age and are dying, a young secondary forest has grown in former gaps in the forest, which still contains numerous specimens of the pioneer tree species mountain ash ( Sorbus aucuparia ) and silver birch ( Betula pendula ).
A natural forest community on the forest site (on nutrient-poor, weakly loess-influenced brown earth over red sandstone ) would be a grove beech forest ( Luzulo-Fagetum ). The oak owes its existence to human support (it was the most important mast tree for forest pasture) and will sooner or later disappear from the area without it. For this reason, since 1975 some distinctive hat oaks have been exempted in order to protect them from competition from the growing young red beeches ( Fagus sylvatica ).
The ground cover is dominated by soil acidity pointer as blueberry ( Vaccinium myrtillus ), wavy ( Avenella flexuosa ), reed grass ( Calamagrostis arundinacea ) and Nice Widertonmoos ( Polytrichum formosum ). Clearings are occupied by bracken ( Pteridium aquilinum ). In the valley to the south of the protected area in the floodplain of Holzape over conducts himself marveling water have Stagno-gleys alder -Bruchwälder developed, individual copies of the buckthorn included.
In 1967, 133 plant species were recorded in the nature reserve and in 1964 there were 253 insect species. The Sababurg Primeval Forest is not only characterized by giant trees, but also by the high proportion of standing and lying dead wood , which provides a habitat for numerous dead wood- decomposing plant and animal species. The forest is also known to the public for its stag beetle population.
Individual tree shapes
"Heraldic oak"
Hat beech with a broad crown
"Fireplace oak"
Old, half-dilapidated beech
Hat beech, largely dead
Relatively young, vital hat oak with a broad crown
Half-decayed hat oak
Huge, multi-stemmed beech
Old hornbeam with a stranded trunk
Old, gnarled oak
tourism
The Sababurg Primeval Forest is a magnet for tourists, family outings and school trips. This fact is taken into account by the forest administration, which has developed the nature reserve through three circular hiking trails of different lengths. The starting point is the Drecktor hikers' car park on Kreisstraße 55, which leads past the western edge of the nature reserve. In order to keep soil wounds to a minimum and to direct the flow of visitors, a boardwalk was laid in parts in 2011. Additional visitor pressure results from the fact that there are other supraregional excursion destinations in the immediate vicinity of the Sababurg zoo and the Sababurg .
Impairments
The strong visitor pressure, especially on weekends and public holidays, affects the nature reserve. Noise and unrest drive away wild animals. The heavy footfall leads to damage to the old trees and accelerates their death. The soil vegetation is thereby also pushed back. Some oaks are now fenced, including the chimney oak and the black oak.
Transport links
The Sababurg Primeval Forest can be reached via Kreisstraße 55, which leads from Hofgeismar past its Beberbeck district , past the “Primeval Forest” and the Sababurg zoo with Sababurg to the Trendelburg district of Gottsbüren ; the Drecktor car park is on the northern edge of the forest area. Due to its remote location, visitors usually travel by motor vehicle.
Two bus lines of the North Hessian Transport Association (NVV) travel to the "primeval forest": Line 190 from Hofgeismar via Reinhardshagen to Hann. Münden (both in the Wesertal) and line 192 from Hofgeismar (in the Esse valley) to Gieselwerder ( Wesertal municipality ). They are operated by the Sallwey bus company and Regiobus Uhlendorff.
References and comments
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Sababurg primeval forest in the Reinhardswald, at the Naturschutzbund Altkreis Hofgeismar, on nabu-hofgeismar.de
- ↑ Info u. a. to the Sababurg Primeval Forest ( Memento of the original from August 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on sababurg.de
- ↑ Distance as the crow flies measured from the hiker's parking lot on the northern edge of the jungle ( K 55)
- ↑ a b Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
literature
- Carl Hessler: Hessian country and folklore. Vol. I. 1, 1906.
- Theodor Rocholl: Sababurg (Reinhardswald). Printed by L. Keseberg, Hofgeismar 1910.
- Max Augustin: Reinhardswald and Bramwald . Hiking and travel book 1920.
- H. Fennel: Krukenburg, Trendelburg, Sababurg . Publishing house Elwert, Marburg a. d. Lahn 1926.
- Günther Schumann : The Sababurg primeval forest - images of life in a magical forest landscape . 4th edition. Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies e. V. 1834 (VGH), branch association Hofgeismar. Hofgeismar, 1997 (Series The History of Our Homeland , Vol. 13).
- Hermann-Josef Rapp (Ed.): Reinhardswald - A cultural history . 2nd Edition. Euregio Verlag, Kassel 2002, ISBN 3-933617-12-X .
- Hermann-Josef Rapp , M. Schmidt: NSG Urwald Sababurg is 100 years old. - Yearbook Nature Conservation Hessen 9: 2005, p. 63.
- Hermann-Josef Rapp , Marcus Schmidt: Giant trees and bracken. The Sababurg primeval forest in the Reinhardswald. Euregio, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-933617-21-9 .
- Lothar and Sieglinde Nitsche: Nature reserves in Hessen. Vol. 2: City of Kassel, district of Kassel and Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Cognitio-Verlag, Niedenstein 2003, ISBN 3-932583-07-8
Web links
- Standard Datasheet Urwald Sababurg Page of the Hessian Environment Ministry with Natura 2000 protected area proposal
- Oaks in the Sababurg Primeval Forest in the Monumental Oaks Directory . Retrieved October 28, 2016