Thanks to a wet climate and moist conditions—as well as the government’s dedication to environmental protection—Germany shelters a delicate array of flora and fauna that becomes more diverse every year, thanks to conservation and reintroduction programs. The country doesn’t host unique animal or plant life (you can find its trees, plants, birds, and animals in other part of Europe), but its many national parks, nature parks, and Biosphärenreservate (biosphere reserves) serve as refuges for trees, flowers, plants, shy mammals, and birds. For a complete list of Germany’s parks and reserves that you can explore by hiking, biking, and sometimes mountain climbing, visit the Europapark website (www.europarc-deutschland.de) and click on Nationale Naturlandschaften.

Flora

Trees

About 30 percent, or 10.7 million hectares (264 million acres), of Germany is covered with forests where 48 species of tree grow. The most common trees are broadleaf and needle leaf varieties, including oaks, maples, and elms in the low-altitude north, and beeches, pines, and firs in the high-altitude south. Chestnut, ginkgo, walnut, and cedar trees, as well as apple, plum, lemon, and other fruit-bearing trees, are also represented. If humans had not arrived in Europe 5,000 years ago, some 80 percent of the continent would still be covered in woods. Only a small fraction of Germany’s forests consists of ancient, primeval forest that has yet to be altered or cleared by humans. Examples include Hainich National Park (www.nationalpark-hainich.de) in Thuringia, the country’s biggest stretch of deciduous forest; and Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, outside of Kassel, which is home to beech-covered hills and thousand-year-old oaks. Other forests were completely eliminated for lumber or felled to make room for farmland or sheep and cow fields. Some forests have since been filled in with non-native trees that were introduced as part of reforestation efforts. In addition to the legendary Schwarzwald (Black Forest), the most impressive Wälder (forests) are the Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian Forest) and the forests that cover the Harz Mountains.

Trees not only shape Germany’s landscape, but also play an important role in its cultural history. One of the country’s most important traditions, beer gardens, owes its existence to the beloved Kastanien (chestnut) tree. Beer barrels were stored underneath the tree’s wide leaves to keep them cool in summer, then beer drinkers started to gather underneath the trees, and the Biergarten was born. Another famous tree—the decorated Tannenbaum, or Christmas tree—is a 16th-century Teutonic invention. Started by merchants who used the trees to decorate their guild houses, the tradition spread from Germany to the rest of Europe and to the United States. Because of its proliferation in all corners of the country, the mighty, solid Eiche (oak) tree trumps all other Bäume in importance by serving as one of Germany’s national symbols.

Flowers & Other Vegetation

From the wildflowers sprinkled across fields to the moss that clings to Alpine crevices, Germany is home to diverse vegetation that splashes the landscape in rich greens, purples, reds, and pinks. Wildflowers that appear alongside highways and across rolling meadows include bright red poppies with paper-thin petals, cheerful yellow and white daisies, bright yellow buttercups, shy purple violets, and sweet little Maiglöchen (May Bells, or lilies of the valley). There isn’t a national German flower, but the country’s countless gardens burst with roses, dahlias, rhododendrons, and tulips.

Fauna

Mammals

Evidence of plentiful wild game is everywhere: from restaurants that specialize in wild (game) dishes like venison and rabbit to historic hunting lodges adorned with antlers. Germany’s forests are full of wild boar, rabbits, deer, pheasants, and the more exotic ibex, which lives in the Alpine region. The most common animals are Eichhörnchen (squirrels), groundhogs, badgers, hedgehogs, and Marter (martin)—little weasel-like animals that are notorious for climbing into cars and chewing through their cables. While in the Alps, looks out for chamois, a horned, goatlike antelope that spends summers scampering around mountaintops and winters in the warmer valleys. If you go hiking anywhere in Germany, watch where you step: Salamanders, worms, lizards, and a handful of snakes slither across the forest floors.

Urbanization and industrialization have wreaked havoc on a few of the native animal species, some of which have been successfully returned to the wild as a result of efforts by government organizations and private foundations, including the Deutsche Wildtierstiftung (German Wild Animal Foundation, www.deutschewildtierstiftung.de). Once a common sight in the Alps, brown bears are now completely extinct. In 2006, Bruno, a brown bear that had been reintroduced into the wild in Italy, made waves when he wandered across the Alps into Bavaria. The 220-pound creature was the first of its kind to be spotted in the past 170 years. For fear that the bear, which had broken into bee hives and killed dozens of rabbits and sheep, would attack a human, the Bavarian environmental minister allowed him to be shot by hunters, much to the dismay of environmentalists and animal lovers. Recently, a pack of wolves spotted along the Polish border was the first group of the lithe gray animals (which play a major role in German folklore) to be spotted in more than a century. Reintroduction efforts have successfully brought back wildcats, which can be spotted in the Eifel, Hunsrück, and Harz mountains, and lynx, which call the Bavarian Forest home. Other rare animals you might encounter include otters and beavers, which are no longer common in Germany. You can observe Biber (beaver, sounds like Justin Bieber) families at the Biosphärenreservat Mittelelbe (Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve); otters are usually too shy to spot.

Birds

Germany’s skies, forests, lakes, and oceans are aflutter with 260 species of birds: eagles, owls, cranes, ducks, woodpeckers, martins, ravens, and seagulls are only the beginning. Look out for duck, geese, and other water birds in lakes and even inner-city ponds, eagles in the Alps, and storks in northern Germany. Residents of Lower Saxony build flagpoles with platforms on top to encourage these gawky birds to stop by and build their shallow, bowl-shaped nests. Many of Germany’s most precious national and nature parks—especially those in the northern half of the country—are designed to provide shelter to particularly fragile birds. The Wattenmeer mud flats, located off of the border of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, are a haven for migratory birds, including delicate white cranes, which snack on the crabs, snails, mussels, and worms embedded in the muddy sand. Müritz National Park, as well as the lakes spread out across inland Mecklenburg–Lower Pomerania, host rare and wonderful species, including sea eagles, ospreys, and cranes. Situated along the German-Polish border, the marshy Lower Oder Valley National Park is also well stocked with rare birds, including sea eagles, black storks, and aquatic warblers. If you don’t have time to go searching for species, stop by the Vogelpark Walsrode (Am Rieselbach, Walsrode, tel. 5161/60440, www.vogelpark-walsrode.de), which claims to be the largest bird park in the world.

Conservation

On a satellite image of Germany, you’ll see a swirling sea of green. In a country in which a major political party—die Grünen—built its platform on environmental stewardship, the conservation of forests, river valleys, hills, lakes, plains, and streams is a major government concern. Indeed, the protection of nature is so important to Germans that is it covered in their country’s constitution, which states that Germany “shall protect the natural bases of life.” Both the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (www.bfn.de) and the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection (www.bmelv.de) play a major part in the job. These ministries, as well as private businesses and universities, take on the task with gusto: Germans have become research and development leaders in the fields of solar power, clean water and energy, low-fuel emissions, recycling, and other environmental solutions. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF, www.wwf.org), the more radical Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org), and other nonprofit organizations also play an active role in spreading awareness about the environment.

Environmental Hazards

In addition to the rise in average annual temperatures and the drop in precipitation that accompanies global warming, Germany is fighting a battle against the same toxic cocktail of environmental threats that faces other developed nations. These include pollution from industrialization and the emission of CO₂ gases from cars, trains, and planes. Despite high-tech efforts to prevent damage to the environment, Germany’s flora and fauna are suffering terribly from these poisons. One troubling indicator is the so-called Waldsterben (forest death) phenomenon. Recent statistics show that about a third of Germany’s trees are sick as a result of environmental damage—in an even more troubling statistic, one in two of the country’s oaks are dying. In addition to climate change, acid rain and other industrial emissions have endangered the health of trees.

The damage caused to German forests by air pollution is a major concern. Trees in the eastern half of the country are the worst off due to pollution-belching GDR plants. Environmentalists have made major moves to reduce the sulfur dioxide emissions that were eating away at the forests. The difficult-to-counter forces of global warming are still plaguing the country’s birds, though: 23 of the 64 most common species, including the everyday house sparrow and house martin, have declined in population over the past 15 years as a result of temperature change.