The

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

- Belgian High Fens – Eifel Nature Park (), often called the North Eifel Nature Park (''Naturpark Nord Eifel''), is a cross-border

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

with elements in the German federal states of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

and

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

as well as the Belgian province of

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

. It has a total area of . The nature park lies between

Langerwehe Langerwehe is a municipality in the Düren (district), district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approximately 10 km west of Düren. It is a twin town of Exmouth, United Kingdom. Nearby is Holzheim Cast ...

and

Eupen Eupen (, , ; ; ; former ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Belgium, Belgian Liège Province, province of Liège, from the Germany, German border (Aachen ...

in the north and

Bad Münstereifel Bad Münstereifel () is a historical spa town in the district of Euskirchen (district), Euskirchen, Germany, with about 17,000 inhabitants, situated in the far southwest of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The little town is one of on ...

Prüm Prüm () is a town in the Westeifel (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Prüm (Verbandsgemeinde), Prüm. Geography Prüm lies o ...

and

Sankt Vith St. Vith ( ; ; ; ) is a city and municipality of East Belgium located in the Walloon province of Liège. It was named after Saint Vitus. The majority language is German, as in the rest of the German-speaking Community of Belgium. On January ...

in the south and covers six regions: the Rur Eifel, the High Eifel, the Limestone Eifel, the

Our Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" Places * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France Other uses * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a governm ...

valley, the Venn Foreland and the

Hohes Venn The High Fens (; ; ), which were declared a nature reserve in 1957, are an upland area, a plateau region in Liège Province, in the east of Belgium and adjoining parts of northwestern Germany, between the Ardennes and the Eifel highlands. The Hig ...

, a

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 ...

and

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

landscape, remnants of the last ice age 7,500 years ago. The geographical description

North Eifel The North Eifel ({{langx, de, Nordeifel), the northern part of the Eifel, a low mountain range in Germany and East Belgium, comprises the following six sub-regions: * Venn Foreland, * Hohes Venn, * Rur Eifel, * Limestone Eifel, * Our Valley and * Hi ...

in its narrowest sense only covers the

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

landscape between

Zitter Forest The Zitter Forest () is located in the Eifel region in the German district of Euskirchen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and in the Belgian province of Liège (Wallonia). Its highest point is . The Zitter Forest lies in the North Eifel between Hellenth ...

in the south and

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

in the north, Bad Münster Eifel to the east and over the Rur Eifel to the Belgian border in the west. The Hohe Venn is geographically seen as a separate natural region within the whole Eifel area, but is nevertheless included in the nature park.

History

In 1960, the president of the now-defunct administrative district of Aachen, Hubert Schmitt-Degenhardt, founded the North Eifel Nature Park. In 1971 it was merged with the Belgian ''Parc Naturel Hautes Fagnes'' to become the Hohes Venn – Eifel Nature Park. The emblem of the nature park is the

black grouse The black grouse (''Lyrurus tetrix''), also known as northern black grouse, Eurasian black grouse, blackgame or blackcock, is a large Aves, bird in the grouse family. It is a Bird migration, sedentary species, spanning across the Palearctic in m ...

Eifel National Park

In the middle of the nature park, largely around the former Belgian Army military training area at Vogelsang and the Rur Valley Dam, is the

Eifel National Park The Eifel National Park () is the 14th national park in Germany and the first in North Rhine-Westphalia. The park was founded in 2004, and is classified as a "national park in development". Eifel National Park is part of the much larger High ...

founded in 2004 and expanded after the withdrawal of the Belgians on 1 January 2006.

Literature

* Baedeker Reiseführer Belgien

References

External links

High Fens – Eifel Nature Park
{{DEFAULTSORT:High Fens - Eifel Nature Park Aachen Ardennes Eifel Nature parks in Belgium Nature parks in North Rhine-Westphalia Nature parks in Rhineland-Palatinate Parks in Wallonia Geography of Liège Province Tourist attractions in Liège Province German-speaking Community of Belgium Ramsar sites in Belgium

History

Eifel National Park

Literature

See also

References

External links