Nature Conservation; Biodiversity Consulting

The Urban Nature Working Group (AK) is dedicated to promoting biodiversity in cities and gardens. We transform sponsored areas in public green spaces into blooming paradises for wild bees, butterflies, and people, and we maintain them. We support people who want to help public green spaces bloom by providing our expertise in ecology and gardening. We build networks to share experiences on all topics related to urban nature.

Our Urban Nature Working Group brings together volunteers dedicated to nature in the city and full-time staff members of the City of Erlangen. We look forward to working with other citizens to create and enjoy blooming diversity in the city.

Would you like to get involved in gardening or provide advice? Would you like to take on a sponsorship and care for a specific area?

We welcome new contributors.

Please contact us at biodiv.beratung@stadt.erlangen.de

Under the Open Land Conservation Agreement, measures for the extensive management of meadows, pastures, farmland, or ponds are agreed upon with landowners. The agreement is generally valid for five years. In exchange for agreed-upon extensification measures, the contracting party receives a fixed payment intended to offset the costs of management. You can find more information about the funding program here!

A prerequisite for submitting an application is a consultation with the local nature conservation authority.

Would you like to manage a meadow, a field, or a pond within the city of Erlangen on an extensive basis in the future?

The biodiversity advisor at the local nature conservation authority will work with you to determine whether the land is generally eligible for funding and which combinations of measures are both possible and appropriate. An assessment of the land can only be conducted during the growing season prior to submitting the application.

Please contact us, if possible, in the spring of the previous year at Biodiv.Beratung@stadt.erlangen.de.

Please provide us with the following information:

• Your farm number
• the land identification number (FID) for the land you manage

We will contact farmers whose land is already part of the contractual nature conservation program and whose contracts are set to expire next year, and invite them to a meeting if necessary. If certain plots are not to be renewed, or if new plots are to be included in the contract, this can be agreed upon during the consultation.

Please have the following documents ready for the consultation:;

• Evaluation form for the expiring period
• For orchard measures: Aerial photograph with eligible trees marked
• FID numbers for additional field parcels or parcel number and cadastral district, if new areas are to be included

After the consultation, the basic AUM application must be submitted to the Office for Food, Agriculture, and Forestry responsible for your farm during the application period (usually January through February).

If you do not wish to continue the VNP commitment, please notify us as early as possible, specifying the FID.

Let’s get started—orchards for everyone!

“Orchards for Everyone” is the name of the funding program offered by the Bavarian Orchard Pact, which supports private individuals who want to plant fruit trees. Subsidies are available for the purchase of standard fruit trees (trunk height of at least 140 cm). The following fruit types are eligible for funding:

pome fruit (apple, pear), stone fruit (plum, cherry), walnut, quince, wild fruit (e.g., serviceberry, wild cherry). You can find more information on the funding guidelines here.

As a municipality, the City of Erlangen can submit the grant application to the Office for Rural Development. We will compile the requests from interested residents.

The best time to plant fruit trees is from late October through late November. If you’d like to plant this year, please contact us with your requests by September 15 if possible! Requests received after that date will be consolidated next year in time for the planting season.

Scattered Fruit Trees in Agriculture

Farmers who wish to plant or maintain fruit trees can apply for grants, for example, through the Cultural Landscape Program ( KULAP) or the Contractual Nature Conservation Program ( VNP). Click here for the KULAP and VNP funding guide.

Scattered Orchards in Erlangen

The Bund Naturschutz’s Scattered Orchard Working Group maintains a large orchard in Atzelsberg with 400 trees and approximately 100 varieties. The first harvest usually takes place there in mid-September. Some of the fruit is processed on-site using a juice press. Interested volunteers are always welcome. If you’d like to participate, you can contact the Streuobstwiese Working Group through the BN office at erlangen@bund-naturschutz.de. You can find more information about the project here. The State Association for Bird and Nature Conservation also manages orchard meadows in our region and welcomes interested volunteers.

Cultivating Diversity for Our Future

If you’d like to plant your own orchard and are wondering which varieties would be suitable, it’s best to ask fruit growers in your region about their experiences. A visit to the Bund Naturschutz’s Orchard Working Group might be helpful. Upon request, we can provide you with lists of varieties that offer an overview of regionally proven varieties and their characteristics. An interesting variety directory was compiled as part of the “A Thousand Fruit Trees for the Franconian Alb” project. In addition, we recommend the extensive fruit variety database maintained by BUND Lemgo. It’s important to note that, due to climate change, the ripening dates listed in the literature actually occur up to 14 days earlier today. This varies from region to region and also depends on the microclimate of the specific location.

Orchard Management – Tree Health and Biodiversity

Proper care of standard-stem fruit trees is a challenging cultivation technique that anyone can learn. There are various approaches to this. Today, the Oeschberg-Palmer pruning method is widely used in the orchard landscape. If you want to care for a fruit tree properly, you need to know how to best support the tree during its various life stages. You can learn to understand the tree. To do this, you have to observe it closely. Each variety behaves slightly differently. The location also has a major influence. For those who want to “get to know” their trees, we recommend the fruit tree care courses offered by the Streuobstinitiative Hersbrucker Alb e.V. In addition, the VHS Erlangen offers fruit tree pruning courses .

Mowing meadows is another way to promote tree health and biodiversity. Ideally, the meadow should be mowed with a bar mower or a scythe, and in sections at different times. The areas beneath the tree canopies can be mowed and mulched two to three times a year. Mulching helps nourish the trees and maintain soil moisture in the summer. In the fall, the mulch should be removed. Mowing in sections creates structural diversity and ensures a supply of flowers throughout the season. This benefits numerous insect species and all animals that feed on insects, such as birds and bats. The greater the biodiversity, the healthier the entire system. This helps prevent fruit pests from getting out of control.

If you want to allow grazing on your orchard meadow, you must protect the trees from browsing damage with appropriate fencing. Horses and goats are not suitable for grazing on orchard meadows.

Biodiversity in Orchard Meadows

Orchard meadows are generally managed without herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, or synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. As a result, this complex habitat of trees and meadows can provide food and/or nesting opportunities for more than 5,000 animal and plant species. The State Association for Bird Protection presents some typical species found in orchard meadows.

Enjoying orchard fruits

An apple is ready to pick when the stem breaks easily when bent. Many varieties must first be stored to reach their peak flavor. One way to tell when they’re ready to eat is that the seeds are no longer light in color but have turned brown. You can find interesting fruit recipes, for example, at the Middle Franconia Landscape Conservation Association.

Drinking orchard fruit juice also supports orchard cultivation and biodiversity. Ask at your favorite beverage store or organic grocery store about orchard-grown fruit juices! In addition, local nature conservation organizations or farmers occasionally offer juice from their own orchard meadows. The old varieties are generally particularly healthy because they contain many polyphenols. These varieties are usually safe for people with allergies to eat as well. BUND Lemgo offers helpful tips and a list of varieties suitable for people with apple allergies.

The Lower Nature Conservation Authority of the City of Erlangen is developing its own biodiversity strategy.

This strategy is based on the Bavarian Biodiversity Strategy and the National Strategy on Biological Diversity.

In Erlangen-Sieglitzhof, the soil is sandy—a challenge for any gardener. Despite the sand, heat, and drought, Sabine Knuff manages to foster a diverse array of plants, insects, and birds in her garden. “It’s quite simple if you plant drought-tolerant, native wildflowers. Many rare species of wild bees and butterflies depend on them as well,” explains the natural garden specialist. She recommends, for example, common goldenrod. It blooms a golden yellow from August through October and will even grow in cracks in the pavement if it has to. Common goldenrod provides food—in the form of pollen, nectar, or caterpillar food—for no fewer than 73 species of wild bees, 27 species of butterflies, and 31 species of hoverflies (www.naturdb.de). The better-known Canadian goldenrod, on the other hand, is not recommended. It is very common in our area because it spreads invasively in the wild.

Sabine Knuff volunteers with the City of Erlangen’s Urban Nature Working Group. The Urban Nature Working Group supports people who want to promote biodiversity in the city or in their own gardens. The working group’s team advises them and also helps set up sponsored areas to promote biodiversity in public green spaces. Those interested can contact the City of Erlangen’s biodiversity advisor at biodiv.beratung@stadt.erlangen.de.

As part of Sustainability Day on September 26 at Erlangen’s Schlossplatz, the Urban Nature Working Group invites you to the (Wild) Perennial Exchange. Native wild perennials willbe available for exchange, along with advice on nature-oriented gardening. This is a great opportunity to get answers to common questions: How do you turn a lawn into a flower meadow? Which plants are drought-tolerant and beneficial for bumblebees and butterflies? What can I do in my vegetable garden to promote healthy soil and protect against drought? The Urban Nature Working Group recommends that anyone interested in participating with plants from their own garden take cuttings and pot them up as soon as possible so they can thrive by the time the Perennial Exchange takes place.

Left image: Purple wood sorrel and common goldenrod attract many pollinators to the natural garden from August through October.
Right image: These young plants are already waiting to be used at the AK Stadtnatur (Wild) Perennial Exchange.