The forest in the nature park has made room for itself again!

Roughly 35% of the total area in nature park Lüneburger Heide is presently forest, performing various tasks. Firstly they present an important economic factor in the production of the regenerative raw material wood, and secondly provide living room for many animals and plants, an ecological balance and an important place for regeneration.

There weren’t always so many forests in the nature park region. When the climate improved after the Weichselian and the Wolstonian glacial periods, the birch and the pine started spreading out, followed by the mixed oak woods and lastly the beech. Then man cleared the forests and denied the trees nutrition in order to use the land for tillage and grazing. On top of that, during the bronze age there was an increased demand for wood for the ironworks. Ever increasing amounts of heather grew on the deforested land. Almost totally diminished, the forest regained more room again in the
19th century, as the heath farming diminished and one began with the replanting of trees again.

Today one can still find the remains of old forests in the nature park Lüneburger Heide. Even wood pastures can still be found. Overall the conifers have the dominance in the nature park. The present aim of the reforesting is the development of mixed woods. So, through natural succession and deliberate gradual sowing of saplings, the remnants of the old pines are being replaced by mixed woods. The concept of perpetuation, by resowing old and sowing new forests, has to take the effects of the changing climate into account.