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Plants and wildlife

In January 2014 parts of the northern Black Forest were designated as Germany’s newest national park, consisting of two separate pieces of land which together cover an area of about 10,000ha. These areas have not been set aside because of their innate wildness, but rather as an effort to ‘re-wild’ them, and thus to provide better habitat protection for a number of endangered species that are native to the Black Forest. The effects will not be apparent during the initial stages of rehabilitation as it may take 30 years or more for nature to reclaim her ground.

Mountains clad in tall, dark spruce and fir trees and a sombre atmosphere is the classic image that has given the region its name. For many centuries this image was not far from the truth, but today the ecosystem is changing. Originally the forest ecosystem consisted mainly of beech and oak, as well as silver fir (Abies alba), all of which are considered high-value timber species and sources of fuel. For many centuries the forest was fiercely exploited, and sadly, no stands of original primary forest have been preserved.