Orchard meadows are important treasure troves of biodiversity
Orchard meadows are true hotspots of biodiversity that can be home to up to 3,000 different animal and plant species. Unfortunately, they are among the most endangered habitats in Central Europe and in many cases have almost completely disappeared from the landscape. This is also due to the fact that the old fruit trees cannot be used industrially or mechanically and the varieties do not meet today's requirements. The KlimafitWald has set itself the task of preserving the existing orchards and, in some places, expanding them.
Orchard meadows with their old fruit trees are particularly important for species that live in tree hollows, such as bats (e.g. common noctule, Bechstein's bat, fringed bat) or other mammals such as the garden dormouse or dormouse.
The now rare orchards with their old, gnarled and holey trees are also an important habitat for many bird species, such as the green woodpecker and the redstart. Endangered bird species, such as the scops owl, hoopoe and the
wryneck, can also be observed in orchards.
Numerous butterfly and beetle species and sometimes orchids (e.g. helmet orchid) and various species of carnation and gentian can be found in an orchard meadow.
If you compare the biodiversity of a meadow orchard with that of an intensively cultivated orchard, you will find 13 times as many birds and 16 times as many bees in the former as in the latter.
In the area of the KlimafitWald, there is an orchard meadow with trees that are over 150 years old. On the other hand, there is a younger meadow orchard with trees between 50 and 25 years old, which we have now extended to the rough pasture that is also being created there with the planting of the first six young trees - apple, sour cherry and pear trees.
This newly created meadow orchard will be expanded this fall. It is important to protect the young trees from browsing. Wild hares in particular, which bite through large areas of bark, and deer, which find the young shoots irresistible, endanger the development of the young trees, as we have already painfully discovered in the first few months.
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