Ski resorts as partners in environmental protection
Combining winter sports and environmental protection
Winter sports and environmental protection do not have to be at odds with one another. The Sauerland Winter Sports Arena demonstrates that tourism and nature conservation can coexist successfully where responsibility is taken and clear guidelines are followed.
The ski resorts are situated in the low mountain range – a region that has been used and maintained for decades, and where tourism, experiencing nature and environmental awareness are closely intertwined.
The aim is to preserve the value of this landscape whilst enabling controlled, nature-friendly use.
The operators see themselves as partners in environmental protection, working in collaboration with authorities and specialist organisations to develop sustainable solutions for both nature and tourism.
Historical Development – A Tradition of Use
Historical Development – A Tradition of Use
Winter sports in the Sauerland region can look back on a history spanning over 110 years.
As early as 1908, the first skiing festivals took place on the northern slope near Winterberg and on the Postwiese in Neuastenberg. In February 1907, the Sauerland Ski Club (SKS) was founded – marking the birth of organised winter sports in West Germany.
The first ski lifts and ski schools emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. The first T-bar lift at the Postwiese in Neuastenberg was built in 1964 – marking the start of the development of what is now a ski resort.
New facilities were also built during this period in Altastenberg, Willingen and at the source of the Ruhr. The Hunau ski resort opened on 1 December 1969 – a significant milestone for winter sports in the region.
In Winterberg, several operators joined forces in 1978/79 to form the ‘Skiliftkarussell’, one of Germany’s first ski lift networks.
This marked the beginning of the development into a coordinated winter sports region, which to this day is characterised by cooperation, technical innovation and responsible land use.
Summer processing of the ski surfaces
Winter use – snow as a natural protective layer
A continuous snow cover protects the vegetation during the winter.
At least 20 to 30 centimetres of snow is required for good slope preparation – only then can skiers and snowboarders enjoy the slopes safely and gently.
Winter sports enthusiasts expect high-quality slopes. Nobody would want to ski on a thin layer of snow.
The snow acts as a natural protective layer, shielding the vegetation beneath from being driven over.
This applies to both natural snow and artificially produced snow. Modern snow-making systems supplement the natural snow cover.
The water required is surface water, mostly from springs and streams. After the snow melts, the vast majority of it returns to the soil, streams and groundwater – without any chemical additives.
Summer use – a habitat for biodiversity
Many areas used as ski runs in winter are, in summer, species-rich mountain meadows, heathland or extensively managed grassland.
Many of these areas are managed extensively – for example, by late mowing, with little or no fertiliser, and minimal maintenance.
This creates habitats for rare plants and insects, such as arnica, devil’s-bite, globeflower or various butterfly species.
Winter use provides an economic incentive to keep these areas open and to manage them extensively in summer.
Winter use ensures economic stability and prevents these areas from having to be afforested or used for more intensive agriculture.
In this way, winter tourism helps to ensure that species-rich mountain meadows and heathland can be preserved.
Many of these meadows and heathlands are now designated as FFH sites or protected as biotopes.
Their good state of conservation is also linked to continuous maintenance and restraint in their summer use.
What serves as a sports area in winter is, in summer, a significant part of the cultural landscape – ecologically valuable and a defining feature of the region’s identity.
The management of mountain meadows
Where the original land use in past times was forest, primarily spruce forest, and this was later converted to open land, heath vegetation predominates at higher altitudes in the Sauerland. This plant community is particularly well adapted to extremely nutrient-poor and shallow soils.
As a result, there are often extremely rare plants, some of which can only be found in this location in the entire West German low mountain range. A classic example is the clubmoss, a shallow creeping perennial that prefers particularly nutrient-poor sites in combination with heath vegetation. This species is on the red list of endangered species in Central Europe. It populates, sometimes in quite large numbers, the ski areas around the Kahlen Asten or in the area of the Ettelsberg near Willingen.
This rare species composition is protected and preserved by keeping the areas open. Higher growth, i.e. the development of a forest, is not achieved by mowing as in the case of the mountain meadows, but by grazing. In late summer and early fall, herds of heath sheep and goats are driven over the ski areas. They eat the young shoots of deciduous and coniferous trees that have developed in early summer, thus naturally keeping the vegetation short. In this way, both the interests of the lift operators and those of nature conservation and biodiversity are served hand in hand.
The management of particularly nutrient-poor soils
Meadows at altitudes above about 600-700 m thrive in completely different climatic conditions than meadows in valley locations or in the lowlands. The time of growth is limited due to colder temperatures, higher wind speeds and greater amounts of precipitation than in the valley. As a result, a very specialized and thus rare plant community is found here.
In addition, mountain meadows only develop if they are cultivated in the historically developed haymaking system, which involves not using fertilizers, pesticides or other external additives.Furthermore, the first cut, the mowing of the meadows, takes place very late (usually only from the beginning of July), so that the plant community can fully develop and the various grasses and flowers can also fully bloom.
The consequence of climatic restriction and historical form of cultivation is that the mountain meadows, which are to a large extent also areas of winter sports operations, have been designated as areas in need of special protection under the EU Directive "Flora-Fauna-Habitat ". More about this also here.