The Southern Black Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Südschwarzwald) is located in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

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 ...

and covers an area of 394,000

hectare 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 ...

s. As of 2018, it is Germany's largest nature park.

History

The Southern Black Forest Nature Park was established on February 1, 1999. The original area of 333,000 hectares was expanded to 370,000 hectares in 2005, and finally to its present size of 394,000 hectares in 2014. It is one of seven nature parks in

Location

It is located in the Southern Black Forest in the south-west of Baden-Württemberg, extending from Herbolzheim and

Triberg Triberg im Schwarzwald is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in the Black Forest. In 2020, it had a population of 4,656. Triberg lies in the middle of the Black Forest between 500 and 1038 metres above ...

in the north to

Waldshut-Tiengen Waldshut-Tiengen (; gsw, label= Alemannic, Waldshuet-Düenge, italic=no), commonly known as Waldshut, is a city in southwestern Baden-Württemberg right at the Swiss border. It is the district seat and at the same time the biggest city in Waldsh ...

and

Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including t ...

in the south and from the Black Forest foothills near

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 ...

and

Emmendingen Emmendingen (; Low Alemannic: ''Emmedinge'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz River, north of Freiburg im Breisgau. The town contains more than 26,000 residents, which ...

in the west to Donaueschingen and

Bad Dürrheim Bad Dürrheim ( Low Alemannic: ''Diirä'') is a town in the district of Schwarzwald-Baar, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated east of the Black Forest, 8 km north of Donaueschingen, and 6 km southeast of Villingen. From 195 ...

on the high plateau of the Baar in the east.

Mountains

Three of the highest mountains of the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

are located within the Southern Black Forest Nature Park: * Feldberg (1493 m) *

Herzogenhorn The Herzogenhorn is a mountain, , in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies within a nature reserve in the municipality of Bernau im Schwarzwald. Location and surrounding area The Herzogenhorn is the source region for three ...

(1415 fm) * Belchen (1414 m) Other mountains within the park are, e.g.: * Schauinsland (1248 m) *

Kandel Kandel () is a town in the Germersheim district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France and approximately 18 km north-west of Karlsruhe, and 15 km south-east of Landau. Kandel is twinned with the small Lancashir ...

(1241 m)

Valleys and ravines

Whereas the valleys offer generally a warmer and more balanced climate than the surrounding mountains, it is cooler in the ravines. As a consequence thereof, in the valleys of the Upper and

High Rhine The High Rhine (german: Hochrhein) is the name used for the part of the Rhine that flows westbound from Lake Constance to Basel. The High Rhine begins at the outflow of the Rhine from the Untersee in Stein am Rhein and turns into the Upper Rhine ...

species from the

Mediterranean region In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...

further south may already be found, while in the narrow ravines of the High Black Forest there may still be relics from the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

.Naturpark Südschwarzwald
Täler und Schluchten
/ref> Well-known valleys and ravines in the Southern Black Forest are, e.g.:

Wutach ravine The Wutach is a river, 91 kilometres long, in the southeastern part of the Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine. In its lower reaches it flows for about 6 kilometres along the border wi ...

(German: ''Wutachschlucht''), Haslach flume (''Haslachklamm''),

Rötenbach Friedenweiler is a town in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is 10 km north of Titisee-Neustadt Titisee-Neustadt () is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Bade ...

flume (''Rötenbachklamm''), Alb valley (''Albtal''),

Ravenna Gorge The Ravenna Gorge (german: Ravennaschlucht) is a gorge in the Black Forest in southwest Germany. It is a narrow side valley of the Höllental, through which the Ravenna stream flows. A trail also runs through the ravine as part of the Black Fo ...

(''Ravennaschlucht''),

Simonswald valley Simonswald ( Low Alemannic: ''Simeschwald'') is a town in the district of Emmendingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Twin towns : Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of B ...

(''Simonswälder Tal''),

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

valley (''Münstertal''), Schleifenbach ravine (''Schleifenbachschlucht''), Windberg ravine (''Windbergschlucht''), Great and Small Wiese valley (''Wiesental''), High Wehra ravine (''Hohwehraschlucht'') and

Wehra Wehra is a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It passes through Todtmoos and Wehr and flows into the Rhine downstream of Bad Säckingen. See also *List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg A list of rivers of Baden-Württemberg, Germany: A * Aa ...

valley (''Wehratal'') as well as Gauchach ravine (''Gauchachschlucht'') and Enge ravine (''Engeschlucht'').

Landscape

Bodies of water

Right through the Southern Black Forest Nature Park runs the watershed between

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

and

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 , p ...

which is the main watershed between

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. Whereas the

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

of the Rhine flow down with rapid force steeply sloped mountainsides, the declivity towards the Danube is by far gentler. Rivers and streams include the Alb, Breg,

Dreisam The Dreisam ( Celtic: ''*tragisamā'', "the very fast one") is a 29 km long river (48.8 km including its source river Rotbach), and a tributary of the Elz in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The waters of the Dreisam feed the fa ...

, Elz, and Wiese. In the Southern Black Forest, there are many waterfalls of different sizes and heights. The

Triberg Waterfalls The Triberg Waterfalls are waterfalls near Triberg in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). With a descent of 163 m, it is one of the highest waterfalls in Germany and a landmark in the Black Forest region. Above Triberg, in the m ...

and the Todtnau Waterfalls are two of the highest waterfalls in Germany. Lake

Schluchsee The Schluchsee is a reservoir lake in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, southeast of the Titisee in the Black Forest near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Name In the Alemannic dialects of the region the name of the lake is the ''Schluec ...

is the largest lake in the Southern Black Forest Nature Park. Other lakes are, e.g.,

Titisee The Titisee is a lake in the southern Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. It covers an area of and is an average of deep. It owes its formation to the Feldberg glacier, the moraines of which were formed in the Pleistocene epoch and nowadays for ...

, Windgfällweiher, Nonnenmattweiher, Schlüchtsee, Feldsee, and Albsee. Most clouds come from the west where they pass the broad lowlands of the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben ( German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the ...

and then have to rise when they reach the Black Forest mountains. Therefore, it rains frequently in the west and in the High Black Forest. Consequently, this is also the area where many bogs could be found in depressions. However, due to age-long

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic condition ...

and

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

extraction, their number has been reduced.

Forests

There are no untouched virgin forests in the Black Forest. The largest contiguous areas of pristine forest were settled in the Middle Ages.Naturpark Südschwarzwald
Waldnutzung
/ref> Originally, the Black Forest was populated above all by

firs Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to ...

and

beeches Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

. Under the influence of man, these

shade-tolerant In ecology, shade tolerance is a plant's ability to tolerate low light levels. The term is also used in horticulture and landscaping, although in this context its use is sometimes imprecise, especially in labeling of plants for sale in commercial ...

species were more and more replaced with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

s and spruces. An objective of the nature park is to increase again the number of firs and beeches and to cultivate structurally rich and diversified forests where also different broadleaf trees grow. The wood of the trees is an important economic factor.

Timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

is used for

house-building Home construction or residential construction is the process of constructing a house, apartment building, or similar residential building generally referred to as a 'home' when giving consideration to the people who might now or someday reside th ...

and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

. In the past, rafters transported it on the Black Forest rivers and then the

, mainly to shipyards in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Sawyers and carpenters settled along the rivers and streams to use their

water power Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a ...

. Wood was used for farmhouses,

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

s, wood shingles,

brushes A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

, carnival

mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and pra ...

s, Black Forest clocks. Wood charcoal was needed for

glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...

. The forests are not only an important because of the renewable raw material wood, but constitute alson an important environmental compensation factor and have a high recreational value. Many species of mushrooms grow in the Southern Black Forest, among them edible species such as

agaricus ''Agaricus'' is a genus of mushrooms containing both edible and poisonous species, with over 400 members worldwide and possibly again as many disputed or newly-discovered species. The genus includes the common ("button") mushroom ('' Agaricus bi ...

boletus edulis ''Boletus edulis'' (English: cep, penny bun, porcino or porcini) is a basidiomycete fungus, and the type species of the genus ''Boletus''. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia, and North America, it does not occu ...

chanterelle Chanterelle is the common name of several species of fungi in the genera '' Cantharellus'', '' Craterellus'', '' Gomphus'', and ''Polyozellus''. They are among the most popular of wild edible mushrooms. They are orange, yellow or white, meaty a ...

, or

truffle A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including '' Geopora'', '' Pe ...

. Several species of mushrooms form mycorrhizal associations with trees and bushes.

Fields and meadows

The Southern Black Forest is a rural area where the countryside has been shaped by

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and animal husbandry. Pasture beeches, a particular form of the copper beech tree, can still be found on the old pastures of the Southern Black Forest.

Architecture

The

Black Forest house The Black Forest houseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 154. . (german: Schwarzwaldhaus) is a byre-dwelling that is found mainly in the central and southern parts of the Bla ...

is typical for the farms in the rural areas. It is adapted to the peculiarities of the Southern Black Forest: built on a slope, isolated location, large amounts of snow and strong winds.Naturpark Südschwarzwald
Architektur
/ref>

References

External links

Website of the Southern Black Forest Nature Park
{{Authority control Black Forest Baden-Württemberg Nature parks in Baden-Württemberg Protected areas established in 1999 Hiking trails in Baden-Württemberg