Dämmerwald's New Wilderness - Awaiting Wilderness

The Dämmerwald is an unfragmented forest covering an area of 1,450 hectares located near the municipality Schermbeck, in the Hohe Mark Westmünsterland National Park. Mixed acidophilous forests of oaks and beeches that are influenced by the Atlantic climate grow on stagnosol soils in the lowlands. And North-Rhine-Westphalia has assumed global responsibility for these woods.

The entire Dämmerwald is protected as a nature reserve (WES-073) and part of the European network of protected areas Natura 2000. The Wilderness Development Area "Dämmerwald" (WG-WES-0001) comprises two smaller areas spanning around 128 hectares where the idea to protect the dynamic processes inside the forest has become true. In connection with the surrounding near to nature forests, it has become a reliable home for wildcats, woodpeckers, forest bats and deadwood beetles.

Adventure Trail "Dämmerwald's New Wilderness"

The pilot project "Dämmerwald's New Wilderness" ("Neue Wildnis Dämmerwald") paves the way for both an emerging wilderness inside the Wilderness Development Areas and an environmentally-sensitive tourism.

The 2.6-kilometre-long adventure path of the Dämmerwald brings you very close so you can participate without disturbing. The wilderness gate, the wilderness station and six windows placed next to the path provide deep insights into the evolution. Here you can experience how the ancient beech and oak forests develop to create the wilderness of tomorrow, how the forest grows and matures, how tree hollows are created, how branches break, how fungi and animals populate the deadwood, how new life sprouts ...

Everywhere we notice the ever-changing dynamics of the forest as it is restoring its natural diversity. Time travels reveal earlier relations between human and forest. Information panels show us what is growing in the Dämmerwald and who is living here. Animals can be virtually revived by using the app.

This disturbs nature!