Wolbeck Zoo

Path in the NSG Wolbecker Tiergarten

The nature conservation and FFH area Wolbecker Tiergarten is located in the 350 hectare Wolbeck state forest in Münster .

geography

Angel in the NSG Wolbecker Tiergarten

The Wolbeck Zoo extends over an area of 288 hectares in the extreme south-east of Münster. To the north and west, the zoo borders the Münster-Wolbeck district ; in the south as in the east it represents the border to the district of Warendorf .

The Angel , which flows through the forest from east to west, divides the zoo into a smaller northern part and a larger southern part. The northern part is also known as Kellingholz .

The zoo's paths are laid out in a grid. Only the Tiergarten road is paved (with a gravel surface in the further course), otherwise typical forest paths dominate. There are bridges over the Angel in a total of three places.

history

Stone with initials CA of Prince-Bishop Clemens August, electoral hat and the year 1740 in the NSG

Today's state forest was probably first created in a wooded area in the 12th century, making it one of the oldest forests in the Münsterland . The current characteristic shape of the zoo and also its name was not given to the forest until the 18th century. Although the zoo was already used by the Prince-Bishops of Münster as a hunting ground in the years before, it was Prince-Bishop Clemens August I of Bavaria who gave the zoo its present form around 1740 and laid out the wide, grid-shaped paths and the earth walls let the forest edges fill up. The boundary stone opposite the old forester's house, which was built in 1712, dates back to this time.

Around 1770 the zoo became the sole hunting ground of the prince-bishops of Münster, as the Sassenberg forest was given up in that year . The prince-bishops used the forest not only for hunting, but also for recreation.

With the secularization of 1803 the zoo came into Prussian hands. The Prussians under General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher shot the last game in the zoo and have since used the forest for logging. Despite the short-term French occupation, nothing changed.

Around 1890 the zoo was increasingly used for recreation by the citizens of Münster. A small restaurant was opened in the forester's house, which quickly became very popular. In 1914, however, it was closed, instead a coffee shop was opened on the Markfort farm in the 1920s, which was operated until 1943. The old signs at the farm are still there today.

In the 1930s it was suggested to set up a small bathing establishment on the meadows on the Angel between Tiergarten and Kellingholz, but the plans were rejected.

The zoo was used as the Münster state forest in the post-war period. In 1980 the fishing rod was straightened for the last time at the level of the zoo. To compensate for this, an oxbow was prepared as a "biotope", which is used as an ice rink in winter. The zoo already had a small nature reserve in 1911, but it was not until 2005 that the entire zoo was declared a nature reserve. At the same time, it was registered as a protected area in accordance with Directive 92/43 / EEC (Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive) of the European Union. Nature conservation and FFH areas are around 287 hectares in size.

Flora and fauna

Natural forest cell Teppes Viertel in the Wolbeck zoo

Dead wood in the natural forest cell in the Teppes Viertel

With its near-natural deciduous trees (grove-beech forest or pedunculate oak-beech forest), the Wolbeck zoo is a nature reserve of supraregional importance. a. beech trees, mostly on pseudogley , due to forest interventions . In these locations, however, the beeches are particularly at risk from storms. The often high groundwater level is regulated by a network of drainage ditches.

The Wolbeck Zoo is considered to be a forest area rich in dead wood. This makes the area particularly interesting as a habitat for lichens, mosses and insects.

The rare flora and fauna were already reported in the 19th century. Today it is in particular amphibians, bats and cave-breeding birds (especially the middle woodpecker) but also a honey buzzard that deserve special attention. A fire salamander population lives in the Wolbeck zoo, which is isolated. The closest neighboring populations are only around 20 km away.

The reasons for this biodiversity lie in particular in the closed landscape of the Wolbeck Zoo and in its size, which is above average for Münsterland conditions. The most important aspect is probably the fact that this forest survived even the medieval clearing and devastation thanks to the prince-bishop's protection comparatively well. Quite a few trees are 200 years old; the oldest tree is said to be the thunder oak with an age of 300 years and a trunk circumference of 4.70 m.

literature

Gudrun Beckmann-Kircher, Dieter Artmann: Wolbeck - In the past and present. Munster 2001.
Andreas Beulting and others: The Wolbeck Zoo . A forest with a long history . NABU-Naturschutzstation Münsterland, Münster, 3rd, updated edition 2013.

Community Wolbeck (Ed.): Wolbeck (Documentation for incorporation 1975). Wolbeck 1974.