Weißwasser jungle

Information board about the NSG, no longer available today

The nature reserve (NSG) Urwald Weißwasser was a forest reserve in the district of Görlitz , five kilometers west of Weißwasser .

It has the official registration number D 80 and covers an area of ​​97.45  hectares  (ha). The nature reserve was in the mining reserve. The Nochten opencast mine had completely dredged over the protected area by 2015. At the end of 2009, the mine apron clearance reached the eastern edge of the NSG in department 183.

location

The nature reserve was located in the extensive forests of the Muskauer Heide . Its geographical location is characterized by the foothills of the plateau (also called Trebendorfer plateau) of the terminal moraine of the Muskau arch in the north around the town of Trebendorf . In the south the area borders on the edges of the Lusatian glacial valley . The jungle consists of parts of departments 184 to 186 and 202 and 203 of the zoo belonging to the Muskau estate . The area was made accessible by hiking trails from Weißwasser, Trebendorf, Runde and Mühlrose until it was used for opencast mining .

history

The nature reserve in its form, as it was when it was founded in the 1960s, owed its creation to the passion for hunting of the Muskau rulers. As early as the middle of the 17th century, the Muskau forests were popular hunting destinations near the Dresden court . This passion of rule prevented the primeval forest near Weißwasser from becoming a victim of the overexploitation of German forests. During the time when the von Callenberg family owned the Muskau estate (around 1648), a hunting lodge was built there, which was expanded into a hunting lodge by the 18th century . The following gentlemen created wild gates, which led to the fencing of a zoo with a size of up to 3000 hectares. The forestry tasks in this forest area mainly included the preservation of wild animals. But also the targeted reforestation and extremely considerate work on the forest stock were in the interests of the owners' passion for hunting.

Fairytale lake with typical trees

Landscape design elements were implemented in the primeval forest under Pückler. The creation of the castle meadow and the creation of a small forest pond in the immediate vicinity of the hunting lodge is attributed to him. In September 1945 the area became state property of the GDR . On March 30, 1961, the core area of ​​the zoo was placed under nature protection and was given the designation "White Water Forest". In 1964 it became a mining reserve with most of the Muskauer Heide . After the political change, the area came under privatization in 1998 to LAUBAG and in 2002 to Vattenfall Europe Mining .

meaning

The very different natural site conditions as a result of the post-glacial geographical development led to a close coexistence of extensive wetlands and considerable sand dunes. There were also areas of silted forest ponds in the nature reserve. This created a very complex forest vegetation. The Lusatian spruce and pine forest predominated in valley locations and the dwarf shrub pine forest predominated in the areas not affected by groundwater. Some old pines, which are endowed with a special genotype of slab bark, were descendants of the post-glacial ancient pines. A forest population unique in Germany consisted of an extensive population of a rare regional variety of the sessile oak. In the primeval forest there were trees with an age of up to 400 years and considerable dimensions. Pückler had already documented such specimens in his allusions to landscape gardening. In the microsensus of the very different forest populations, there is a very characteristic flora and fauna that is unique for Germany.

flora

Examples of noteworthy plant species currently still occurring in the nature reserve of the Weißwasser Primeval Forest:

Lusatian lowland spruce (up to 175 years old) Slab jaw (up to 250 years old) Sessile oak (up to 440 years old) European beech (up to 300 years old) Sand birch Downy birch / English birch Hanging beech Silver fir Mothweed (swamp porst, suckling tongue) Fuchs's orchid Broad-leaved orchid Spotted orchid Flesh-colored orchid Broad-leaved stendola Brown-red stendellar Rote Stendelwurz (special form of the Braunroten Stendelwurz ) Large two-leaf White forest hyacinth Winter love Seven star Marsh violets Dog violets Pit violets Sand violets Peat violets Colorful violet Blue violet Middle sundew Round-leaved sundew Bell heather

Rosemary heather Club Bear Slap Sprouting Bärlapp Marsh Bear Moss Cypress flat bear moss Zeilers-Flachbärlapp Diverting cotton grass Narrow-leaved cotton grass Swamp sword lily Siberian iris Iridescent iris Water hose Duckweed Water spawn herb Knotweed spawn Water figwort Common cranberry Common bearberry Bastard blueberry Bogberry or dark berry Oak fern Comb fern Ostrich fern Royal fern Worm fern bracken Rib fern Sorbian blackberry Pipe whistle grass Wiesensegge

Swamp sedge Gray sedge Yellow sedge Sedge sedge Pygmy sedge Blue-green sedge Head rush Sandbush Beaked rasp Tender rush Brown Schnabelried Weißes Schnabelried Rooting cornices Moor riding grass Dwarf flax arnica Meadow box beard Marsh ragwort Catnip Wild sage Meadow thyme (wild thyme) Sand thyme (wild thyme) Pechnelke Heather carnation Carnation Stone carnation Rock carnation Red carnation Cuckoo carnation Phrygian knapweed

Adder tongue Finial Wood anemone Forest forget-me-not Spiked devil's claw Marsh stork beak Meadow horsetail Big meadow button Spruce asparagus Kassuben vetch Common pea Marsh chickweed Woodruff Wild strawberry Yellow-white pseudo-Ruhr herb Filzkraut Cat paws Smelly dog ​​chamomile Dyer's chamomile Gigantic tragacanth Heilziest Waldziest Gray cinquefoil Norwegian cinquefoil Quaking grass Nodding pearl grass Fragrant white spice Forest rhinoceros Stone berry

fauna

Examples of noteworthy animal species currently occurring in the Weißwasser primeval forest: red deer, fallow deer (white), wolf, badger, black grouse, crane, black woodpecker, green woodpecker, small woodpecker, goat milker, nuthatch, oriole, golden hammer, gray bunting, red-backed killer, white-tailed eagle, red kite, tree falcon , Hoopoe (near open pit), common raven, eagle owl, tawny owl, little owl, rough-footed owl, pygmy owl, long-eared owl, bat (3 species), adder, smooth snake, grass snake, moor frog, agile frog, pond frog, common toad, common toad, common toad, common toad Crested newt, red-bellied toad, stag beetle, sawhorse, rose beetle, scarlet beetle, hermit, stag beetle, oil beetle, gold bug, wasp spider, blue butterfly, ducat butterfly, map butterfly, moth, sail butterfly, swallowtail, dodge wasp ...

Seed protection on the copper beech of the former head forester's office

New creation of the zoo in a cultural landscape

With the charring of the territory, the unspoilt forest areas are lost. The lignite mining plan of the Nochten open-cast mine therefore sees the creation of an approx. 1,600 hectare cultural landscape as a replacement for the lost nature reserve, etc. a. the jungle Weißwasser. The concept of Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation contains the following priorities:

• Landscaping with the geographical replication of the post-glacial landscape,
• Natural equipment with the typical flora of today's nature reserve,
• Replica of historical elements with recovered original pieces (GPS address to find the old location).

For this purpose, gene conservation plantations for protected trees were created. Valuable individual plants were recovered, slips were taken and plant seeds were collected.

literature

• Fritz Brozio: Nature conservation work in the Weißwasser district, nature reserves and nature conservation strategy . In: Local history contributions for the district of Weißwasser / Oberlausitz, Issue 8, Weißwasser 1992.
• Fritz Brozio: Nature conservation work in the Lower Silesian Oberlausitzkreis . In: Homeland contributions for the Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia District. Issue 13, Niesky 1997.
• Karl Heinz Grosser: The forest and its environment in the area around the hunting lodge near Weißwasser. In: Contributions to the study and protection of the native nature. Potsdam 1965.
• Karl Heinz Grosser: The forests at the hunting lodge near Weißwasser (OL). Forest studies in the Muskauer Heide. In: Treatises and reports from the Natural History Museum in Görlitz. Leipzig 1964.
• Lutz Stucka: An ancient forest with its stories and legends. Cottbus 2008.
• Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation (Ed.): Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007.

Web links

Commons : Urwald Weißwasser (former nature reserve)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fritz Brozio : conservation work in Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis . In: Homeland contributions for the Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia District. Issue 13, Niesky 1997, p. 6.
2. ↑ In the refuge forest for refugee plants. Retrieved January 31, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Around 1820 Pückler began to create so-called rack paths. These are aisles at right angles to each other, which divide the forest area into about 45 hectare sections, also known as hunting . The creation of these forest management units should prevent extensive overexploitation of the forest. The method goes back to the two forest scientists Hartig and Cotta and was adopted by Pückler. The project was then completed by Pückler's successor, Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands .
4. ^ Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007, p. 6.
5. ↑ Lutz Stucka : An ancient forest with its stories and legends. Cottbus 2008, p. 17f.
6. ^ Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007, p. 60.
7. ↑ Fritz Brozio: conservation work in the district of White Water, nature reserves and conservation strategy. In: Local history contributions for the district of Weißwasser / Oberlausitz. Issue 8, Weißwasser 1992, p. 24.
8. ^ Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007, p. 61 f.

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 3.2 ″  N , 14 ° 33 ′ 2.3 ″  E