The Wildsee is a small

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

within an area of

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

between

Bad Wildbad Bad Wildbad is a town in Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located in the government district (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Karlsruhe and in the district (''Landkreis'') of Calw. Its coordinates are 48° 45' N, 8° 33' E. About 10,1 ...

and

Gernsbach Gernsbach () is a town in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Murg, east of Baden-Baden in the Black Forest. Twin towns are Baccarat in France and Pergola, Marche in Italy. The town is the hist ...

, high in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...

mountain range in southwestern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The lake is fed by rain water. It is part of the ''Kaltenbronn'' Nature Reserve. The area has a geological base of sandstone. The sandstone developed a rich brown soil, which originally allowed the European Beech to grow. In the later development of forestry, the

Norway Spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...

and European Pine ( Pinus sylvestris) were introduced. These three tree species can be found in the vicinity of the lake.

Location

The Wildsee is located at a height of on a plateau between Bad Wildbad, Gernsbach and

Forbach Forbach ( , , ; gsw, Fuerboch) is a commune in the French department of Moselle, northeastern French region of Grand Est. It is located on the German border approximately 15 minutes from the center of Saarbrücken, Germany, with which it const ...

. The surface area of the lake has been estimated as 2.3

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ab ...

since work in the early 20th century by Karl Müller. More recent data from the Baden-Württemberg State Office for the Environment, Survey and Conservation estimates its area as 1.15 hectares.Ma service of the LUBW
theme "Stehendes Gewässer", retrieved 22 January 2015. Immediately adjacent is the smaller Hornsee (0.43 hectares). The nearest settlement with road links is Kaltenbronn, about 2 kilometres to the southwest. The boundary between the municipalities of Gernsbach (county of Rastatt) and Bad Wildbad (county of Calw) runs through the Wildsee and its associated nature reserve. The Hornsee belongs to Gernsbach.

Formation

At the end of the last ice age (about 10,000 years ago), impervious,

bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

beds and high levels of precipitation caused the formation of the boggy terrain in this area. As a result of incomplete decomposition, a peat layer, up to eight metres thick, was formed in the Wildsee Bog (''Wildseemoor''). The thicker the peat layer, the lower the supply of nutrients for plants growing on it. The result is a vegetation of relatively undemanding plants (

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es,

cottongrass ''Eriophorum'' (cottongrass, cotton-grass or cottonsedge) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the sedge family. They are found throughout the arctic, subarctic, and temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere in acid bog h ...

es).

Conservation

The bog landscape, including the Wildsee and the Hornsee, is a near-natural

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 ...

with bog forests that have been placed under protection (Wildseemoor Nature Reserve, 183.2 ha), in order to encourage the development of the raised bog, and pine and spruce forest ecosystems on its perimeter, with their special animal and plant species. In addition, the region around the lake is protected as ''

Bannwald ''Bannwald'' is a German word used in parts of Germany and Austria to designate an area of protected forest. Its precise meaning has varied by location and over time. Etymology The word ''Bannwald'' is a combination of ''Bann'' (English ''ban'' ...

'' (Wildseemoor Bannwald, 291 ha). With the Hohlohsee Nature Reserve and surrounding areas of protected forest, the Wildseemoor has been merged since 2000 into the Kaltenbronn Nature and Forest Reserve (1,750 ha).Schutzgebietssteckbrief ''Natur- und Waldschutzgebiet „Kaltenbronn“''
LUBW, retrieved 3 April 2014

Tourism

The moorland landscape is crossed by a board walk built by the

Black Forest Club The Schwarzwaldverein (Black Forest Club or Black Forest Association) was founded in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) in 1864, making it the oldest German hiking and mountaineering club. The Schwarzwaldverein has almost 90,000 members in 241 loca ...

, which passes directly over the lake. The waymarks of the

Middle Way The Middle Way ( pi, ; sa, ) as well as "teaching the Dharma by the middle" (''majjhena dhammaṃ deseti'') are common Buddhist terms used to refer to two major aspects of the Dharma, that is, the teaching of the Buddha.; my, အလယ်� ...

hiking trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. The ...

from

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...

to Waldshut lead around the nature reserve.

References

Literature

* Karl Müller: ''Das Wildseemoor bei Kaltenbronn''. Verlag G. Braun, Karlsruhe, 1924.

External links

Brochure: "Hohlohsee und Wildseemoor"
(map, reserve boundaries, trails; pdf; 867 kB) – Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe * {{NaturBW, 919001000017
Flyer Kaltenbronn
Lakes of Baden-Württemberg Lakes of the Black Forest LWildsee Bogs of Baden-Württemberg