A municipal forest or municipal woodland is a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

owned by a town or city. Such woods often have a higher density of leisure facilities like

play park A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

s, restaurants and cafes,

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

cycle path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

s and

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

s. Unlike an

urban forest An urban forest is a forest, or a collection of trees, that grow within a city, town or a suburb. In a wider sense, it may include any kind of woody plant vegetation growing in and around human settlements. As opposed to a forest park, whose ec ...

, which is located largely or entirely within an urban area and may be privately owned, a municipal forest is publicly owned and may well be outside the city or town to which it belongs. Most urban forests will be municipal forests, but many municipal forests are non-urban.

Europe

Germany

In Germany municipal forests are usually

corporate forest A corporate forest is a forest or woodland area owned by a corporate body rather than a state or individual. For example, in Germany, a corporate forest (german: Körperschaftswald) is, in accordance with Section 3, Paragraph 2, of the Federal For ...

s in accordance with Section 3 of the Federal Forest Act (§ 3 ''Bundeswaldgesetz''). Among the best known municipal forests in Germany are the Tiergarten (210 ha) in Berlin, the Berlin City Forest (28,500 ha) which includes the Grunewald (ca. 3,000 ha) and Köpenick Forest (ca. 6,500 ha), the

Frankfurt City Forest The Frankfurt City Forest or ''Frankfurter Stadtwald'' is a forest district in the south of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. There are also other forest areas spread out through the city. Basic Facts The forest is about 48 square kilometres and the l ...

(3,866 ha), the Dresden Heath (6,133 ha) and the Rostock Heath (6,004 ha), which are some of the largest in the world. The Duisburg City Forest, together with the Broich-Speldorf Forest in

Mülheim an der Ruhr Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr () and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many compa ...

, the Sportpark Duisburg and the Duisburg Huckinger Mark form a contiguous forest area of about 3,000 ha. The Leipzig Riverside Forest is one of the largest surviving

riparian forest 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 Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered chann ...

s in Central Europe.

List of municipal forests in Germany

* Berlin City Forest (28,500 ha) with Grunewald, Köpenick Forest and other woodland areas in and around Berlin *

Brilon Brilon (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Brailen'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany, that belongs to the Hochsauerlandkreis. Geography Brilon is situated on the Brilon Heights at an altitude of about 450 m on the up ...

Municipal Forest (7,750 ha) *

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

, Municipal Forest (ca. 7,500 ha) *

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

Municipal Forest (7,000 ha) * Dresden Heath (6,133 ha) * Rostock Heath (6,000 ha) * Villingen-Schwenningen Municipal Forest (5,841 ha; ''in toto'' 8,114,5 ha) *

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Municipal Forest (5,600 ha) *

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Municipal Forest (5,200 ha) *

Boppard Boppard (), formerly also spelled Boppart, is a town and municipality (since the 1976 inclusion of 9 neighbouring villages, ''Ortsbezirken'') in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, lying in the Rhine Gorge, a ...

Municipal Forest (4,360 ha) *

(3,866 ha Stadtwald. ''in toto'' 5,785 ha) * Fürstenwalde Municipal Forest (4,677 ha woods with 90% pine forest and 10% deciduous) *

Mühlhausen Mühlhausen () is a city in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen. Mühlhausen was first mentioned in 967 and b ...

Municipal Forest (3,093 ha) * Weißenburg Municipal Forest (2,806 ha) *

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its nam ...

Municipal Forest (2,772 ha) *

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

Municipal Forest (2,256 ha){{cite web, title=Information der Stadt Bielefeld, website=Bielefeld.de, url=http://www.bielefeld.de/de/un/stw/, access-date=2014-03-30, language=de *

Salzwedel Salzwedel (, officially known as Hansestadt Salzwedel; Low German: ''Soltwedel'') is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, and has a population of approximately 21,500. Salz ...

Municipal Forest (1,400 ha) * Leipzig Riverside Forest (1,163 ha of forest. ''In toto'' ca. 2,500 ha) * Lauerholz in Lübeck (960 ha) * Steigerwald in Erfurt (800 ha) * Eilenriede in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

(650 ha) *

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in ...

City Forest (600 ha) *

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division ('' Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the ...

Municipal Forest (560 ha) * Eschweiler Municipal Forest (350 ha) *

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Municipal Forest (205.3 ha) * Marienhölzung in Flensburg (200 ha) *

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, ...

Municipal Forest (120 ha) * Seelhorst in

(100 ha)

France

Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

in Paris * Bois de Vincennes in Paris

Austria

Vienna Woods The Vienna Woods (german: Wienerwald) are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The and range of hills is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area ...

(105,645 ha, of which 8,650 ha are in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) *

Lainzer Tiergarten The Lainzer Tiergarten is a 24.50 km² (6,054- acre) wildlife preserve in the southwest corner of Vienna, Austria, 80% of it being covered in woodland. It dates back to 1561, when Ferdinand I created it as a fenced-in hunting ground for h ...

(2,450 ha) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

* Lobau (2,300 ha) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

* Viennese Prater (600 ha)

Switzerland

* Stadtwald (1.200 ha) und

Sihlwald The Sihlwald is a forest and nature reserve in the Sihl Valley of the Swiss canton of Zürich. It is a rare example of a large-scale and original forest, situated on the eastern slopes of the Albis hills to the west side of the Sihl river. Althoug ...

(1.000 ha) in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

( Schweiz)

United States

* Jefferson Memorial Forest

References

Urban forests Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

Forest management