A Former Wood Pasture Turned Jungle - Old Forest near the Sababurg
After the visit to the Hutewald in the Solling which is an example for a recreated and working wood pasture, let’s have a look at a former wood pasture that has been allowed to grow on its own without the influence of humans or domesticated animals for a long time now.

The Nature Reserve Urwald Sababurg
The Urwald Sababurg is a part of the Reinhardswald Forest (near Kassel) close to Sababurg Castle. The denomination as ‘jungle’, while popular, is misleading. It is no true primeval forest, but has been influenced by humans since the Middle Ages. But the enclave near the castle has been turned into a Nature Reserve and left to its own since 1907, so the forest had a lot of time to develop naturally.

The forest in spring
I have been hiking there several times, so the photos in this text present the forest in early spring and high summer; two very different vistas. Spring is the best time to see the boles, branches and twigs of the old trees. Summer is green and shady.

Gnarled old oak
The forest encompasses 92 hectares of former wood pasture. Due to its history, old oaks are one of the forest’s defining features. Some of them are 800 to 1000 years old, as are a number of beeches, often growing out of their roots with several boles due to former coppicing. Another typical feature are the high ferns that abound in the clearings.

Clearing with bracken fern
What makes the Urwald Sababurg a jungle is the fact that the wider space between the trees in a former wood pasture allowed for younger trees and shrubs to grow up during the last hundred years. Fallen logs and boles are left to rot, so outside the hiking paths, a pretty dense boskage has developed over time.

Why it’s called ‘jungle’
Oak and beech are not the only trees in the Sababurg Forest. Birches took their chance to grow up between the larger oaks. They are fast growing and shot up to a good size by now. Their silver-grey bark and the lovely pale green budding leaves are an epitomy of spring.

Birches in spring
The forest is unique in Central Europe, due to its past as wood pasture with those ancient oaks and beeches, and its biodiversity that developed together with the forest left to its own for a century by now.

Spring and summer
The oldest trees are individuals; most even got nicknames by the rangers working in the forest. While gnarled old oaks can be found in other places as well, if they meet with good conditions, a thousand year old beeches are very rare. Usually, beech populations in a forest have a shorter generation shift.

The forest in summer
The farmers’ rights to forest pasture and pannage had already been repealed in 1865, but it would take until the beginning of the 20th century for the forest to become a Nature Reserve. Some painters took an interest in the picturesque quality of those old trees and the burgeoning wilderness. Their paintings led to a growing interest in such forests, especially since the mythological quality of those mysterious places met with the spirit of the time.

A fallen tree
The first forest, protected since 1907, encompassed 61 hectares. In 1917, it was expanded to 181 hectares, but part of that were not ancient wood pasture, so the size was decreased again to 92 hectares which is also the present expanse of the forest. The ground and the forest belong the the County of Hessia.

Beeches finding their way to the sun
Many of the 800 year old beeches and oaks have reached their maximum age and are slowly dying. In the sunlit spots such giants leave behind, secondary forest grows, mostly birches, hornbeams and rowans. Alder trees have taken root in a wetter part of the forest.

One of the oldest oaks, the Rapp-Eiche
The natural development of a forest would have offered the best chance to common beeches. They are social trees that communicate and exchange nutrients via their root system (other tree species do that as well, but beeches are especially good at it). When a forest influenced by humans was abandoned again, they usually got the best start. Therefore Germany is rich in beech dominated deciduous and mixed coniferous forests. Beeches also thrive on low nutrient brown earth like in the Reinhardswald.

A labyrinth of branches and twigs
The unusual high distribution of oak trees in the Sababurg Forest is due to the human influence at the time when those forests were used for silvopasture, since oaks would offer the best shade to the animals and the acorns as fodder. So the limited human interference that is allowed in the Sababurg Forest has been to protect some of those old oaks from the competition of beech saplings since 1975.

Closeup of an oak
Ground covering vegetation is mostly whortleberry, wood hairgrass and purple reedgrass, as well as haircap moss (which likes the rotting, fallen trees) and bracken fern that grows up to two metres and abounds in the clearings.

One of the clearings
The high amount of dead wood is one of the distinguishing features of a forest left to itself (it would be transported off in a cultivated forest), and an oeceologically important factor. It provides growing space for funghi, moss and lichen.

Broken-off branch
The rotting wood and the chapped bark of the old trees offer a biotope for 2,000 insect and beetle species, a fifth of which are endangered, among them the stag beetle (which can also been found in the Hutewald in the Solling).

The forest in summer
And the forest is a lovely place for hiking - in every season.
 
¶ February 16, 2020 0 comments

  Recreating Historical Land Use - Wood Pasture with Heck Cattle and Exmoor Ponies
Wood pasture was a way of using the resources of deciduous or sometimes mixed coniferous forests since settlements developed in wooded areas, and it lasted in parts until the 18th century. Forests that grew out of those old grazing sites are still around. They show some distinct features, and some have been recreated.

Hutewald in the Solling
Among them is the Hutewald Project in the Nature Park Solling-Vogler. The area of 170 hectares is situated near Nienover (Lower Saxony) and is used for wood pasture since 2000. There had been a former Hutewald – the German word for forest pasture – before, so the old oaks made for a good basis. Now, Heck cattle (see below) and Exmoor Ponies are used to keep the undergrowth in check.

Oak trees
Driving cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, into the woods for grazing on saplings, shrubs, mushrooms and fruits, and getting fattened on acorns and beech nuts, has been a first step to cultivation of wildland since prehistoric times. It was already common around the Mediterranean of Antiquity as well as in central Europe during the migration period.

In the forest
Fewer saplings that grow to a size where the cattle could no longer reach the shots meant that the forest turned into an open woodland when old trees died. Oak fared better as pasture forest than beech, since beech saplings grow slowly under the shelter of their mother tree and thus remain within grazing reach; oak shots grow faster and turn bitter, so some escaped the hungry mouths of the cattle. Over time, the herbaceous plants were pushed back in favour of ground vegetation that needed light, and thus increased the quality of the grazing material.

Sunlight on leaves
The trees also offered shelter for the animals. The forests not only served as pasture; they also provided timber for fuel, charcoal making and construction, often by coppicing (cutting the tree close to the root to grow several separate stems) or pollarding (pruning the crown to restrict the growth and get a denser crown). Some trees were allowed to grow to the full splendour of their height and crown, though. They provided nutrients and shade.

Tree crowns
Long term use of forests for pasture led to a blurred line between open woodlands and meadows with some trees (Huteweide in German). The latter not only included oak and other broadleaf trees, but also fruit bearing trees like apple or cherry trees that were planted by humans.

The Hutewald project in the Solling presents both types of woodland pasture. There are some marked ways for hiking, but to enter the forest proper you need to attend a tour guided by a ranger.

Meadow with brook
Wood pasture increased considerably in the 12th century and encompassed large forest areas between the settlements and fields. Even though most of the forests belonged to the nobility or the church, who had the right of the high hunt and drew income from the use of the forest, the right of pasture and pannage was given to the local farmers, together with the right of gathering wood debris as firewood.

Alder grove
Pannage depended on the amount of acorns and beech nuts a forest would produce; there are three year cycles for beech nuts, for example. Other trees like maple or linden were often felled to make space for more oak and beech. Since pigs were the main provider of meat for the non-nobility, the quality of pannage was important for the overall value of a forest.

Cattle and horse pasture was seasonal. The animals would be driven into the forests for two months in early summer, after they had grazed off the open meadows, so those could regrow. The regrown grass then was cut and used as winter hay. The animals returned to the meadows in autumn.

Clearing, overgrown with saplings and herbaceous vegetation
During the late Middle Ages, meadow grazing became more common and the forests were mostly used for pannage of pigs. But wood pasture increased again after the Thirty Years War when large swathes of settled land were abandoned (Wüstungen). Increasing demand of timber caused a decline in silvopasture forests since the later 17th century. The remaining trees either were felled, or the woods were reforested to grow more timber. Changes in animal husbandry (larger breeds of cattle, f.e.) and agriculture that led to the abandonment of wood pasture during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Another clearing
In some cases, the process was reverted again, though. In areas where the meadows and fields had been overgrazed, oak forests suitable for pasture were planted which would serve both for grazing and timber industry. But pasture combined with wood cutting led to a decrease in the use of such forests again. Some have been allowed to revert to ‘jungle’, like the the ‘Urwald’ at the Sababurg / Reinhardswald that exists since 1907.

One of the hiking trails in the Hutewald
It takes some 16 to 30 cattle or 100-200 pigs per 100 hectares to browse for several years to create a typical open forest. Maintaining that status works better with less animals, though.

The oaks in the Solling have been planted in clusters of 9x9 metres some 200 years ago. Today, the animals amount to about 20 Heck cattle and 20 Exmoor ponies on 170 hectares. That number proved to be most suitable to establish a light forest with a surprising biodiversity – 580 various species of animals, insects, plants and funghi listed in the Red List can be found today.

Lovely green
It is assumed that open forests may have been around before human settlement in some parts. Large herbivores like aurochs, European bison (Wisent), moose or wild horse may have influenced the development of the primary forests in a similar way. Moose and bison are no longer around in Germany, but a race that works well in recreated pasture forests are Heck cattle rebreeds. Modern milk cows would not thrive on the rougher fare.

Heckrinder - Heck Cattle
Heck cattle started as a dream. In the 1920ies, the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck wanted to recreate the extinct aurochs. Heinz was the director of the Berlin Zoological Gardens, Lutz held the same position in the Hellabrun Zoological Gardens Munich. They both started their own rebreeding programs, using Alpine brown cattle, Hungarian Grey, Angel cattle, Corsican cattle and some other races which seemed to best represent the traits of aurochs. Lutz Heck also used Spanish fighting bulls, but since the Berlin line died out after WW2, the breeds we got today are descendants of the Munich line.

Out of the trees
The pseudo-‘aurochs’ got popular with the leaders of the Third Reich. Hermann Göring had a bunch of the Berlin line released into his hunting reserves in the Schorfheide in 1938, and returned more into the wild in Białowieża, Poland, in 1941. He wanted to transform northern Poland into a genuine German jungle with genuine German beasts. 20,000 Poles were forcefully relocated, several hundred died. No wonder they killed evey single ‘German’ cattle after the war.

Facing the intruders
What the Heck brothers got were not true aurochs rebreeds, of course, but a hardy race of domestic cattle than can cope with nutrient-poor fare and stay outside in winter, albeit they are not the only race capable of surviving such conditions. Heck cattle is today considered an official domestic breed.

Post war efforts to improve the Heck cattle also included Upland red cattle (Harzer Höhenvieh) and the Ankole Watusi from Rwanda. The various cross-breedings resulted in a rather diverse look of the Heck cattle lines in colour, size and proportion, or the shape of the horns.

Not so sure about those humans
Heck cattle are 20-30 cm shorter than the extinct aurochs; bulls average 4’5’’ (140 cm) with a weight of 1.300 lb (600 kg), females are about 4’3’’ (130 cm). That is not larger than some other domesitic breeds. An aurochs bull could tower at close to 2 metres and weigh a ton.

The aurochs had a more athletic shape with a high withers; Heck cattle are bulkier – like modern breeds – and with a flat back. The head is smaller and the shoulder musculature therefore less well developed than that of the aurochs. The brown and reddish colours – sometimes even with a dorsal stripe – dominant in Heck cattle, are the feature that comes closest to the aurochs. (Neverthless, some lighter shades can be found with Heck cattle as well.)

The horns are somewhat different, too. Aurochs horns grew outward and upward from the base, then forward and inward, at last upward again at the tips. They could be up to 100 cm in length. Heck cattle presents different horn shapes, but they are usually shorter and curve too much upwards and/or outwards (like Highland cattle).

Checking on the family
The cattle are kept in natural herds; excess oxen are slaughtered in autumn, their high quality beef is sold locally.

Besides the Heck cattle, other animals to graze in the Hutewald in the Solling are Exmoor ponies. They are a hardy outdoor race native to the British Isles, recently often used for projects like this. Not to mention very cute. *smile*

Exmoor Ponies
Some Exmoor ponies still live semi-feral in the moorlands of Devon and Somerset, but they are classified as ‘endangered’. Ponies in Exmoor have been around since the 11th century at least (the Domesday Book mentions them), but probably longer. They came into the fore of interest when a privat buyer bought the Royal Exmoor Forest in 1818. The warden, Sir Thomas Acland, brought 30 ponies to his private lands. They became the nucleus of the modern breed; descendants of the first herd still live at Winsford Hill.

The rest of the ponies in Exmoor were sold, though some luckily ended up with local people who took care of their blood line, so some Exmoor ponies are still around on the moorlands.

Mare with foal
In 1921, the Exmoor Pony Society was founded. Its aim was to maintain the pure Exmoor breed. They suffered a severe setback during WW2, though. The moors were used as training ground, which caused the breed to become almost extinct. Only 50 ponies survived the war. By the 1990is, enough ponies had been born to spread them to various areas of England in small herds. And a few moved to other countries, like the herd that now lives in the Hutewald in the Solling. By 2010, the world wide stock was estimated to be about 800 animals.

Daddy
Exmoor ponies come in a size range of 45-50 inches (11.1 to 12.3 hands, or 114-130 cm), with the stallions usually being a bit taller than the mares. Their coats are variants of dark bay, with pangaré markings around the muzzles, eyes, flanks and underbelly – those are considered a primitive trait, as is the head which is somewhat large in proportion to the body.

The ponies have a stocky build with short legs, deep chest and broad back; they are strong for their size, and known for their endurance. They grow a winter coat of an insulating wooly underlayer and an oily topcoat. They had shed that one when I visited the Hutewald.

Pony family
The photos in this post were taken during two tours, a private hiking tour on the official ways, and one guided by a ranger that brought us directly into the forests.

 
¶ February 03, 2020 0 comments