Happy Birthday, Eifel National Park!

The Eifel National Park is celebrating its 20th birthday! To mark this anniversary, the national park administration has planned a series of events. It starts on 10 March with a big National Park anniversary celebration.

From 230 to 2,600 Red List species
The 10,800-hectare national park was established in 2004, in particular to protect the native copper beech forests. At 20 years old, the protected area is still considered a so-called „development national park“. Protected areas such as the Eifel National Park have 30 years to leave at least three quarters of their area to its own devices. Only then will they fulfil the international criteria of a national park. In the only national park in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, „letting nature be nature“ works extremely well. This is demonstrated by the fantastic development that the park has undergone since its foundation. Initially, only 230 endangered species were known to exist in the Eifel National Park. This number has now risen to more than 2,600. In total, more than 11,300 species live in the protected area on the Belgian border, including beavers, kites, wall lizards, wild daffodils, black storks and wildcats. The national park administration has also noticed that the copper beech is becoming more common, which is an indication of the decreasing influence of previous utilisation.

Recreation for people too
The Eifel National Park not only offers a retreat for nature and animals, but also for people. Recreational visitors can explore the protected area and its nature on their own on a well-signposted network of trails covering 240 kilometres. Full-time rangers and more than 100 volunteer forest guides also offer personalised tours through the reserve. Many accommodation providers and catering establishments have National Park Host are committed to the goal of preserving nature in the national park and making it an experience for guests. This also includes the youth hostels Aachen, Blankenheim Castle, Hellenthal, Bad Münstereifel, Monschau-Burg, Monschau-Hargard, Nideggen and Gemünd Vogelsang. Many of them offer programmes, school trips and camps that focus on the Eifel National Park.

National Park anniversary celebration on 10 March
The national park administration has planned a series of events in the anniversary year. The first of these is a Big party at the Eifel National Park Centre on 10 March 2024. On this day, admission to the Experience exhibition „Wildnis(t)räume“ free. There is also a colourful programme from 10.00 to 17.00 with children's theatre, poetry slams, ranger tours, craft workshops and the multimedia presentation „Wild Namibia“. A highlight is the photo exhibition „Wild Pictures - 20 Years of Wilderness Development in the Eifel National Park“. It shows 40 pairs of pictures that provide exciting before-and-after insights into the development of selected natural sites in the Eifel National Park.

Would you like to be part of the anniversary celebration? The Gemünd Vogelsang, Simmerath-Rurberg and Hellenthal youth hostels are only a 20-minute drive from the Eifel National Park Centre and offer you affordable accommodation.

Image source: Vogelsang IP (Photographer: Roman Hövel)