Nature
In Germany, the Seven Mountains are one of the areas under nature protections most oldest. Since 1958, they are nature park, 1971 they were awarded the "Europe diploma". Nonetheless, they have an eventful, even dramatic history. In old pictures, you can see how much the quarries had damaged the nature. Today it is a wonderful place again, and we owe that to the commitment of the Verschönerungsverein für das Siebengebirge (VVS). Today, the Seven Mountains offer a varied landscape, and a flora and fauna with a large number of species. Many endangered animals and plants live here.
On the following pages you can see some local trees, wild flowers and stones from the Seven Mountains. Moreover, there is a table on Earth History.
If the Seven Mountains were untouched nature, most likely the beeches would be predominant in the woods. Today, forestry has created mixed woods with 36% beeches, 18% oaks, 12% other deciduous trees, 3% robinias, 23% spruces and 8 % pines (source lanuv, Northrhine-Westphalia ).On this page, you can see some of our local trees, but by far not all. Where what kind of tree grows best depends on several factors, eg the soil conditions, height, proximity to water and others. In regions above 150 m, common oaks and hornbeam forests grow with many winter lime trees; in regions above 300 m, mountain oaks, beeches and European beeches. Also the maple tree belongs into the Seven Mounains Nature Park. The larch is actually a tree accustomed to much higher locations, their home are the high mountains, but now we find the larches also in lower regions. Today, most areas along the Rhine are land developed and cultivated by man, that means settlements designed by humans with promenades, shoreline parks, fields and meadows and more. Only a few remnants of the original riverside woodlands have remained, so on the Rhine island of Nonnenwerth or at the mouth of the rivers Ahr and the Sieg into the Rhine.
But .. you should discover all that for yourself, these pages are only and invitation. And if you go for a walk in the Seven Mountains, please also visit the nature park house at Margarethenhöhe!
www.naturpark-siebengebirge.de