Hunsrück-Hochwald

Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park was created in 2015 straddling Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and protects some 100 km² in the Hunsrück massif. It was the first national park shared by two German Länder.

Its most characteristic geological feature is the Rosselhalden, fields of quartzite blocks that run down the slopes between the woods, formed by the shattering of the rock during the periglacial periods of the Quaternary and today covered in mosses and lichens. Beech and mixed woods grow among them, and in the poorly drained areas upland peat bogs survive, a rare habitat in the region.

The park also protects beech stands left to develop freely and a forest fauna that includes the wildcat, whose population in the Hunsrück is one of the most important in Germany, as well as black stork, woodpeckers and bats tied to old trees. Celtic archaeological remains lie in its territory, with the so-called Otzenhausen ring wall, one of the largest Celtic hillforts in central Europe, on its edge. The official designation is Nationalpark Hunsrück-Hochwald and its management is shared between the two federal states.