Forest margins in Hesse

Forest margins are important habitats

Forest margins are transition zones from forest to open areas. Low bushes, berry bushes, herbs and wildflowers grow next to trees. There is light and shade, warm and cooler areas, open spaces and dense vegetation. This diversity of small-scale habitats is ideal for countless species, as food, hiding places and breeding sites are close together. Many little-known yet important micro-habitats need this close network of light and shade. Small mammals such as the rare garden dormouse also feel at home here. The endangered Little Owl also needs this interplay of sparse woodland directly adjacent to open fields. Trees that bear berries in autumn, such as rowan, wild service tree or mealberry, are typical of forest fringes. Bushes with berries, such as blackberry, raspberry, blackthorn and many others are also part of these species- and berry-rich transition zones.

We want to plant a forest margin

Unfortunately, such transition zones have become rare in our standardised landscape. Usually a dark forest borders directly on a field. The fields in turn are large and hardly interrupted by hedges or small islands of forest. In Wiesbaden-Naurod, Naturefund is the owner of two hectares of farmland bordering directly on a shady forest. Here we now want to establish a forest margin for about 20 m between the forest and the field. This will of course include trees such as maple, weeping cherry, bird cherry, but also hazelnut and blackthorn as well as numerous berry bushes together with herbs and wild flowers.

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