Ore Mountains hike to the biodiversity on our doorstep
Invitation to the annual excursion in memory of the artist and nature lover Carl-Heinz Westenburger - Date: Saturday, 20 July
The Chemnitz Environmental Centre, Agenda 21 Office and Chemnitzer Künstlerbund, Erzgebirgsverein Tannenberg and BUND Sachsen cordially invite interested citizens to the annual excursion in the name of biodiversity and in memory of the artist and nature lover Carl-Heinz Westenburger (1924-2008), the initiator of this hike.
The date is Saturday, 20 July - the meeting point for participants in the hike from Satzung to the "Schwarze Heide - Kriegsweise" nature reserve is 9 a.m. at Gasthof Tannenberg (Untere Dorfstraße). An alternative meeting point for hikers and art lovers is one hour later at 10 a.m. at Ziegengasse in Satzung. Hikers should equip themselves with sturdy shoes and weatherproof clothing and should not forget to bring their own rucksack with food and drink. It is not necessary to register in advance. Participation is free of charge.
The excursion will be led by Wolfgang Riether, BUND-Sachsen founding member, Dietmar Tuchscherer, Tannenberger Erzgebirgsverein, and Manfred Hastedt, Head of the Environmental Centre. The excursion leads from Satzung to the "Schwarze Heide - Kriegswiese" nature reserve, a faunistically and floristically extraordinarily species-rich area that is home to over 60 different species of breeding birds. Of particular scientific interest here are the open areas of raised bog with the common cottongrass: this type of near-natural vegetation is otherwise very rare - due to today's intensive agriculture - and many of the boreal plants are otherwise only found in large numbers in northern Europe.
Contact: City of Chemnitz/Environmental Centre - Manfred Hastedt, call 0371/488-6177.
Background: With the annual art and nature excursion in the name of biodiversity, which has been held since 1990, the organisers organise a special offer and invite visitors to get to know the natural beauty and biodiversity on their doorstep. Joint hikes with artists, conservationists and nature lovers have led, for example, to the mountain meadows in the Erzgebirge and last summer to the Gottesgaber Hochmoor. Carl-Heinz Westenburger, who became known as a painter and graphic artist as well as a conservationist, was also a member of the Tannenberg Ore Mountain Association, and the hikes he organised together with artists from Chemnitz, then Karl-Marx-Stadt, have a long tradition that continues even after his death. An important concern was and is to familiarise city dwellers with the great diversity of species at the gates of their city and, at the same time, the endangered nature of this biodiversity.