National Park Mueritz - Germany

If man had not uprooted forests and turned them into fields or meadows, this country would today be covered with beech forests. Only in areas of periodic damp would alder-populated carr terrain appear. In constantly wet areas forests no longer grow. If we were to leave nature to her own devices forests would grown again. They would change many times over the centuries and in today’s climate would finally become beech forests. 200 years ago the destruction of the forests reached a critical point and was halted. This finally brought about the introduction of controlled forestry. Firstly systematic reforestation was carried out. In this area pines were preferred due to the sandy soil. At the end of the 19th century foreign species of trees were introduced. The majority of the forest region, over 75%, is now taken up by pine. Large beech forests can mainly be founded in the Serrahn region of the park. Some parts of these forests have not been cultivated for over 40 years and make up an impressive forest landscape.