Naturpark Bayerischer Wald bei Ruhmannsfelden 1

Naturpark Bayerischer Wald bei Ruhmannsfelden 3

The Bavarian Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Bayerischer Wald) covers an area north of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

as far as the border ridge with the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. Its sponsor organisation is the ''Naturpark Bayerischer Wald'' whose head office is in

Zwiesel Zwiesel ( cs, Svízel) is a town in the lower-Bavarian district of Regen, and since 1972 is a Luftkurort with particularly good air. The name of the town was derived from the Bavarian word stem "zwisl" which refers to the form of a fork. The for ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. It was established in 1967 and is thus the oldest

nature park A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected natural area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscape ...

in Bavaria.

Location

The Bavarian Forest Nature Park lies in the southeast of Germany between the Danube and the highlands of the

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is con ...

along the Bavarian-Bohemian border. In the east it is adjoined by the Bavarian Forest National Park and in the north by the

Upper Bavarian Forest Nature Park The Upper Bavarian Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Oberer Bayerischer Wald) covers an area of 1,796 km² and is thus one of the largest nature parks in the German state of Bavaria. Landscape The nature park covers the whole territory ...

. Its neighbouring protected areas on the Czech side of the border are the Bohemian Forest (''Šumava'') Protected Area and Bohemian Forest National Park. In the southeast the area of the nature park borders on the Upper Austrian district of

Mühlviertel The Mühlviertel () is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria: it is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria, the others being Hausruckviertel, Traunviertel, and Innviertel. It is named after the three rivers ', ', and '. ...

Natural region

The territory of the Bavarian Forest Nature Park begins at the Danube at a height of about 320-metres above sea level. Here there are the last remains of

riparian woodland A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. Etymology The term riparian comes from the Latin word ' ...

and structurally rich

ox-bow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. In South Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called '' resacas''. In Australia, oxbow lakes are call ...

s. The Lallinger Winkel is well known for its scattered

orchards An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

. On the anterior chain of the Bavarian Forest, the so-called Danube Hills, the last examples of the threatened

capercaillie ''Tetrao'' is a genus of birds in the grouse subfamily known as capercaillies. They are some of the largest living grouse. Taxonomy The genus ''Tetrao'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ...

still survive, as they do in the highlands of the inner Bavarian Forest. An ecologically very rich rock formation is the Pfahl. It runs in a southeasterly direction for about 140 kilometres from the neighbouring Bavarian province of

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...

to the state of

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

. The weather resistant quartz rock protrudes above the surrounding gneisses by several metres and offers a habitat for many warmth-loving animal and plant species. In the Inner Bavarian Forest there are still structure-rich mixed mountain woodlands and the typical highland spruce forests with

raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation ( ombro ...

s and areas of ''

Schachten ''Schachten'' (singul.) are ancient areas of pasture in the Bavarian Forest in Germany, some of which are still used today. Description Similar to the alms or alpine pastures of the Alps, ''Schachten'' are treeless forest meadows. These open a ...

'', the last relicts of mountain pasture. The Bavarian Forest is part of the largest contiguous forest in Central Europe and, together with the neighbouring

Bohemian Forest The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as Šumava () and in German as Böhmerwald, is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in ...

, is of outstanding importance for nature and landscape conservation. The partly near-natural woods in the border region and the attractive, historical

cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the co ...

make the Bavarian Forest Nature Park an important component in the conservation of major landscapes. Numerous animal and plant species which have become very rare or are threatened with extinction in Bavaria and Germany as a whole, have found their last refuge areas in this region.

External links

Bavarian Forest Nature Park
{{Authority control

Bavarian Forest Nature Park The Bavarian Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Bayerischer Wald) covers an area north of the Danube as far as the border ridge with the Czech Republic. Its sponsor organisation is the ''Naturpark Bayerischer Wald'' whose head office is i ...

Regen (district) Deggendorf (district) Straubing-Bogen

Location

Natural region

See also

External links