Harz National Park

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Harz National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
View from the Brocken summit
Location	Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Coordinates	51°47′0″N 10°34′0″E / 51.78333°N 10.56667°E / 51.78333; 10.56667Coordinates: 51°47′0″N 10°34′0″E / 51.78333°N 10.56667°E / 51.78333; 10.56667
Area	247 km²
Established	1990, 1994, 2006 Established: 1990, 1994, 2006
Governing body	Nationalparkverwaltung Harz Lindenallee 35 38855 Wernigerode

The Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises large portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes. 95% of the area is covered with forests, mainly with spruce and beech woods, including several bogs, granite rocks and creeks. The park is part of the Natura 2000 network of the European Union.

The protected area comprises about 10% of the Harz mountain range. Elevation ranges between 230m (755ft) at the northern rim and 1141m (3743ft) at the summit of the Brocken mountain. Within the territory are the sources of rivers like the Bode or the Ilse, a tributary to the Oker. The waters of the Oder creek flowing southwards are collected in the historic Oderteich reservoir finished in 1722 to supply the mines in Sankt Andreasberg.

In its current form, the park was created on January 1, 2006 by the merger of the Harz National Park in Lower Saxony, established in 1994, and the Upper Harz National Park in Saxony-Anhalt, established in 1990. As the former inner German border ran through the Harz, large parts of the range were prohibited areas, that apart from the fortifications had remained completely unaffected for decades. Today the park covers parts of the districts of Goslar, Osterode and Harz.

Rare animals of the Harz National Park include the Dipper, the Black Stork, Peregrine Falcon, the European Wildcat and especially the Eurasian Lynx. The last lynx in the Harz Mountains had been shot in 1818, but in 1999 a project for reintroducing was established. Since 2002 several wild lynxes gave birth. An attempt to return the Capercaillie (Auerhuhn) however did not succeed.

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Lynx project site (German)

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