A particular feature of the Erzgebirge/Vogtland Nature Park is its hedgerow landscapes. They emerged on stone ridges and land parcel boundaries during the settlement of the Erzgebirge and Vogtland. The hedgerows provide a distinctive habitat for plants and animals. They fulfil a large number of different roles in the landscape: they improve microclimates, protect the soil from wind and water erosion, support biotope networks and assist those gathering fruit and medicinal herbs. Particularly in our nature park, hedgerows are a characteristic component of the landscape’s appearance. They are part of the regional identity and beloved by both local residents and visitors alike.

Hedgerow landscapes can be found in the nature park around Pöhlberg/Annaberg (terraced fields), at Crottendorf, Johanngeorgenstadt (Am Grauen Mann hedgerow landscape) and Pöhla, around Mildenau and Schöneck, and at Großbrückerswalde.

The various efforts to maintain, rejuvenate and extend existing hedgerows, as well as efforts to plant new hedgerows in landscapes where they have been cleared, are supported by the nature park. For example, the Zschopau-/Flöhatal Landscape Conservation Association worked with the nature park and the Mittleres Erzgebirge e.V. (a local branch of the German conservation organisation NABU) to plant over 7 kilometres of hedgerows in the area around Ansprung and Zöblitz between 1997 and 2000. Starting in 2003, a new, extensive hedgerow network was developed in Crottendorf in collaboration with the Mittleres Erzgebirge Landscape Conservation Association and various nature conservation associations. The work was supported by the Saxony State Foundation for Nature and the Environment (LaNU) and the umbrella association EUROPARC Deutschland’s Marktplatz Natur initiative.

The nature park used the slogan “Hedgerows for rabbits and hedgehogs” to take part in a 2017 competition organised by the ViO mineral water company (a subsidiary of Coca-Cola in Germany) to obtain financial support for new hedges in Blumenau, a district of Olbernhau, and Geyersdorf, a district of Annaberg-Buchholz. The hedgerows were planted in the spring of 2018.  

You can find more information on hedgerows at vielfalt.naturpark-erzgebirge-vogtland.de/