Lothar Path

48°30′21″N 8°13′20″E / 48.505961°N 08.222296°E / 48.505961; 08.222296

The Lothar Path (

, which tore through the forest here on 26 December 1999 with wind velocities of up to 200 km/h creating a wide swathe of debris.

After mountain pastures became increasingly uncultivated as a result of the housing of livestock and the abandonment of haymaking, the plateaux of the Northern Black Forest were initially reforested, predominantly with

soil to any great depth. As a result, when the storm hit the state of Baden-Württemberg, around 30 million cubic metres of wood was torn from the ground within the space of two hours.

After the storm, conservation and forest managers decided to leave the 10-hectare windthrow area of the Lothar Path to recover unaided as an area of protected forest or Bannwald, in order to be able to observe the long-term, natural regeneration of the habitat. The project was entrusted to the Black Forest National Park.

In June 2003, as part of the EU-sponsored

may be seen.

In 2007 it was recorded that nearly 50,000 visitors came to the Lothar Path annually.[1]^[2]

Literature

• Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe (publ.): Sturmwurf-Erlebnis auf dem Lotharpfad. 3rd edition. Karlsruhe, 2005.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lotharpfad.

• Der Lotharpfad auf der Seite des Nationalpark Schwarzwald
• Broschüre der staatlichen Naturschutzverwaltung Baden-Württemberg (PDF; 4,4 MB)
• Themenpark Umwelt

References

1. ^ Der »Lotharpfad« kommt in die Jahre, Mittelbadische Presse – Zeitung der Ortenau, 19 March 2007, retrieved 24 August 2013
2. ^ Der Lotharpfad feiert 10jähriges Jubiläum^{[permanent dead link]}, landkreis-freudenstadt.de, 17 June 2013, retrieved 24 August 2013