Lothar Path

The Lothar Path is a woodland revel in and academic course within the Schliffkopf Nature Reserve by the Black Forest High Road between Oppenau and Baiersbronn at the B 500 in the Northern Black Forest. The call of the windthrow instructional path is derived from Hurricane Lothar, which tore through the forest here on 26 December 1999 with wind velocities of as much as 200 km/h creating a wide swathe of debris. After mountain pastures became more and more uncultivated due to the housing of cattle and the abandonment of haymaking, the plateaux of the Northern Black Forest were to start with reforested, predominantly with spruce, whose roots could not penetrate the bunter sandstone soil to any tremendous intensity.

As a end result, whilst the storm hit the country of Baden-Württemberg, around 30 million cubic metres of wooden become torn from the floor inside the space of two hours. After the storm, conservation and wooded area managers determined to leave the ten-hectare windthrow area of the Lothar Path to recover unaided as an area of blanketed woodland or Bannwald, so as to be able to study the long-time period, natural regeneration of the habitat. The mission became entrusted to the Black Forest National Park.