A Protected Areas Project in Natura 2000 Districts in the Eifel National Park Contents Introduction 03 The Project Area 04 - 05 Low Mountain Range Streams 06 - 09 Deciduous Woodlands 10 - 13 Open Land 14 - 15 Stone Crayfish Colonisation 16 - 17 Habitat Protection is Species Protection 18 - 19 Looking to the Future 20 - 21 Public Relations Work 22 - 23 Project Overview 24 - 25 Contact 26 Publisher’s Details Picture credits: A. Au: 39 Publisher: C. Burg: 10 T. Dietsche: 11,31 Biologische Station StädteRegion Aachen e.V. B. Eiseler: 6,7,9,15 Zweifaller Straße 162, 52224 Stolberg, M. Ernst: 29 EU Environment: 40 Germany H. Glader: 30,32,37,38 Phone: 02402-126170 Dr. H. Groß: 8 E-Mail: [email protected] C. Heer: 1 M. Höller: 26,27 Website: www.bs-aachen.de J. Janssen, signatur umweltmedien: 41 Dr. T. Kasielke: 22 Editor: Anika Poetschke N. Kolster: 25,36 Text: Bettina Krebs, Julian Mauerhof, Dr. H. Körber: 33 J. Mauerhof: 17 Anika Poetschke. Marietta Schmitz A. Olligschläger: 28 Dr. A. Pardey: 2,3,4,5,12,13, 24 Graphics: Cosmolog, www.cosmolog.de cover pages front and back Printed by: Schlömer & Partner GmbH H. Pützler, www.puetzler.de: 34 S. Reicheneder: 35 Last amended: January 2017 Dr. M. Röös: 16,19,20 M. Schulze: 18 A. Simantke: 42,43,44,45 Further information D. Sommerfeld: 14 www.wald-wasser-wildnis.de/en/ S. Wilden: 21 © Nationalparkforstamt Eifel im Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz Nordrhein-Westfalen & Biologische Station StädteRegion Aachen e.V. 2 LIFE+ ‘Woodlands – Water – Wilderness’: A Project on the Optimisation of FFH habitats in the Eifel National Park The title of this LIFE+ project refers to its core themes and objectives: improving woodland and water ha- bitats in three protected areas of European signifi- cance, so-called Natura 2000 districts, from January 2011 to March 2017. The areas are located in the Eifel National Park. They still have a largely natural character and contain protected habitats and rare flora and fauna. Traces of human utilisation nevertheless were and still are visible. Conifers – not indigenous to the Eifel – provide evidence of former forestry. Streams had been straightened in places and weirs and pipes built in. The great density of wildlife in the area is an expression of a lack of natural enemies and impairs the growth of young deciduous trees. The project pursued the following objectives: >> To create end-to-end, dynamic, watercourses >> To expand natural deciduous woodlands such as moist forests and beech groves >> To expand biodiverse habitats created by man, such as mountain pastures >> To colonise the stone crayfish >> To improve the living conditions for animal species meriting protection >> To create contiguous habits Picture credits: 1 A. Au: 39 C. Burg: 10 Two strong partners from the region took up this challenge: the Eifel National T. Dietsche: 11,31 Park Forestry Office and Aachen Cities Region Biological Station Association B. Eiseler: 6,7,9,15 M. Ernst: 29 (Biologische Station StädteRegion Aachen e.V.). They were supported by the EU Environment: 40 Rhine-Weser Federal Forestry Department, which looks after the state-owned H. Glader: 30,32,37,38 Dr. H. Groß: 8 areas of the Dreiborn Plateau and in the Kermeter uplands on behalf of the C. Heer: 1 Federal Government. The Eifel National Park, created in 2004, still ranks as a M. Höller: 26,27 park ‘under development’. In such national parks renaturation measures can be J. Janssen, signatur umweltmedien: 41 Dr. T. Kasielke: 22 tackled on a fairly large scale for 30 years. Thereafter three quarters of the area N. Kolster: 25,36 is to be left to itself. Dr. H. Körber: 33 J. Mauerhof: 17 A. Olligschläger: 28 Measures carried out in the project: Dr. A. Pardey: 2,3,4,5,12,13, 24 cover pages front and back The measures carried out in the project are presented on the following pages. H. Pützler, www.puetzler.de: 34 S. Reicheneder: 35 80 kilometres of watercourses have been optimised, seven hectares of new Dr. M. Röös: 16,19,20 open land restored and the basis created on over 850 hectares for development M. Schulze: 18 A. Simantke: 42,43,44,45 towards deciduous woodland. D. Sommerfeld: 14 S. Wilden: 21 3 Köln District of Düren StädteRegion HRTGENWALD Aachen Düren Aachen Hürtgenwald Nideggen NIDEGGEN Simmerath Heimbach Mechernich Monschau Kall Schleiden Hellenthal Belgium District of Euskirchen Rheinland- Pfalz HeimbachHEIMBACH 0 2,5 5 10 Eifel National Park 1:500.000 SIMMERATH MONSCHAU MONSCHAU KALL SCHLEIDEN HELLENTHAL Kermeter Valleys of the Dreiborn Plateau (Valleys in the former Vogelsang military training grounds Dedenborn, Wahlerscheid (Püngel and Wüstebach flood plain and Erkensruhr head- 0 1 2 4 water) 4 1:200,000 Eifel National Park Local authority and NRW geospatial data, © Geobasis NRW 2016 The Project Area The LIFE+ ‘Woodlands – Water – Wilderness’ project was run What is LIFE+? in Natura 2000 areas located almost entirely within the Eifel Life+ is a financial subsidy scheme National Park in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. run by the European Union. It funds natural environment conservation The Natura 2000 areas and improvement projects. Projects aimed at the protection and conservation of natural habits and wild fauna and flora are financed in Natura 2000 areas with subsidies from the Life+ Nature programme. What is Natura 2000? What are FFH areas? 2 Natura 2000 is a large network of Kermeter (DE-5404-301) protected areas in the European Union. The areas are protected on the basis of two European directives: the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive. The aim is long-term conservation of important habitats, flora and fauna and thus biological diversity in Europe. Together, 3 the areas protected by both directives form the Euro- Dedenborn, Püngel and Wüstebach flood plain pean Natura 2000 protected area network. and Erkensruhr headwater (DE-5404-303) 4 Valleys in the former Vogelsang military training grounds (DE-5404-302) Apart from a few parcels of land, the sites in the project area are owned by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia or the Federal Republic of Germany. 5 6 The Eifel’s natural low mountain range streams Depending on the slope and width of the flood plain, the streams of the Eifel wind through the countryside with A ‘watercourse with aquatic vegetation’ varying degrees of force. The water is cool all year round. is the name given to the habitat meriting With shallow and deep, slow- and fast-flowing sections, protection that was improved by the measures taken. Growing in these streams, they offer a habitat to both small and some larger animals. 5 for instance, is spring water moss. The stream beds covered with sand, shingle, stones, foliage and dead wood, but also overgrown with alders, offer them sanctuary, protection from the current and suitable places Animals that can be seen with the naked to lay their eggs. The flowing water ensures a constant eye and that live on the stream bed are dynamism in the stream: stones, pebbles, sand, leaves generically called macrozoobenthos. They and dead wood get flushed along and deposited again include insects, e.g. the stonefly genus in other places. From their mouth to their source, natural 6 Perla marginata. watercourses can be freely travelled along by stream life, a concept known as unhindered ecological passage. Deciduous woodlands naturally line the low mountain The stonefly larvae live for a year or more range streams of the Eifel. In flat valleys it is moist forests, in the water and then metamorphose into while in narrow, steep V-shaped valleys beech groves insects, which live for a short time longer on land. extend right up to the banks of the stream. 7 The streams’ condition before the project began Prior to it being designated as a protected area, free In some places the streams were dammed. From there, passage along the watercourses in the National Park was warm water and mud used to get into the watercourses. lost as it was increasingly put to forestry and in many Typical stream structure and thus small habitats vanished areas also military use. In many places damns for vehicle through the fact that streams got re-routed and straightened crossings were created in the streams and the waterway and their banks and beds stabilised. Planting the meadows was led through pipes. Inside the smooth pipes the stream with non-indigenous conifers also changed the conditions life got easily flushed away. At the end of the pipe there for life in the stream. would be a ‘drop’, which prevented fish and other stream life from travelling upstream. As here at the Sauerbach, watercourses Canalisation, such as here next to the This stream had been straightened and were previously dammed in order, for Helingsbach stream, used to dissect the stabilised with stones. example, to trap the sediment that got into valleys of the ‘Dreiborn Plateau’ and also the streams as a result of military use. disturbed the entire water drainage and impacted on the flood plains. 7 Streams free of barriers from source to mouth When the project started, there were numerous canalisation pipelines, not replace them and remove the tracks. Large pipes under woodland tracks and dams. In the current dams in narrow valleys have also been liberally cleared ‘under development’ National Park it is already possible away in order to give space to the dynamism of the stream. to do without numerous tracks. In many areas nature is Where the track and pathway plan does still provide for already being left to itself and a few are no longer accessible crossings, stepping stones for hikers or bridges for vehicles, to visitors in order to create sanctuaries for animals.