Woods and Forests

In second place in terms of area are the woods and forest biotopes with 21.3% (2,216 hectares). The wood and forest biotopes in the Gellmersdorfer Forest, Gartzer Schrey, Schöneberger-Stolper Woods, in the Densen Mountains and valley sand terraces of Gartzer and Pommerschen Bürgerheide are mainly made up of softwood forests (474 hectares), softwood forests with hardwood species (514 hectares) and hardwood forests (144 hectares).

Pine trees (Pinus sylvestris) dominate the conifers, followed by spruce (Picea abies), larch (Larix decidua) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). The dominant hardwood species are the common oak (Quercus robur), common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), black alder (Alnus glutinosa) and common beech (Fagus sylvatica) (5,7 %).

Pristine forests are mapped at approx. 840 hectares (= 8,10%) of the National Park. In addition to the beech forests of medium and lime-rich locations, oak-beech grove forests are also characteristic of the Oder hillsides. In lime-rich locations you can occasionally find the lady orchid (Orchis purpurea, RL 1 BB) and the Turk’s cap lily (Lilium martagon, RL 2 BB). In damp and wet areas of the Oder floodplain, there are softwood forests such as the hybrid crack willow floodplain forest as well as alder marsh and alder-ash forests.

The forest areas are essentially concentrated on the well to very well nutrient-fed ground moraine slabs with glacial loam and sand and their hillside areas of the Oder Valley.

Here you will mainly find habitats of the oak-beech grove forests, woodruff-beech forests, oak forests as well as ravine and hillside mixed forests. Sometimes large spring moorland complexes with alder-ash forests are present on the hillsides. In some cases, the valley sand terraces of the Gartzer and Pommerschen Bürgerheide between Friedrichsthal and Gatow are somewhat less nutrient-fed. Sub-Atlantic English oak and oak-beech grove forests grow here. In the polders, soft and hardwood floodplain forests grow on clay, loam and sand, whereas the wet polders towards the north are becoming increasingly swampy.

In the woods and forests, several habitat types are listed according to Annex I of the Habitats Directive, i.e. the most common forest habitat in the National Park is the priority LRT 91E0 – floodplain forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (Alno-Padion, Alnion incanae, Salicion albae) covering 542.1 hectares. With 170 hectares, the second most common forest habitat, LRT 9170 – cleaver-oak-beech grove forest Galio-Carpinetum – can mainly be found in the Gellmersdorf forest and in the Gartzer Schrey.