Small but exceptional Biological Reserve, the Directed Biological Reserve (Réserve Biologique Dirigée –RBD) Hochfeld is located in the forest Hohwald-Zundelkopf near Schirmeck. It belongs to the same forest and landscape group as the RBD Champ du Feu (BR 59) from which it is only separated by a few hundred meters of forest.
The RBD Hochfeld has a unique history and situation within the Biological Reserves Network. For its main part, it corresponds to the grip of a downhill ski run open through the forest in the 1960s. This deforested and even eroded environment is home to a pioneer moor of extraordinary species richness. Lycopods, primitive and discrete plants close to ferns, but biological heritage of national and European interest. The management of the winter and summer high use of the site is an important issue for the Biological Reserve.
The RBD Hochfeld is included in the Natura 2000 site (Habitats Directive) “Champ du Feu”.
Small but exceptional Biological Reserve, the Directed Biological Reserve (Réserve Biologique Dirigée –RBD) Hochfeld is located in the forest Hohwald-Zundelkopf near Schirmeck. It belongs to the same forest and landscape group as the RBD Champ du Feu (BR 59) from which it is only separated by a few hundred meters of forest.
The RBD Hochfeld has a unique history and situation within the Biological Reserves Network. For its main part, it corresponds to the grip of a downhill ski run open through the forest in the 1960s. This deforested and even eroded environment is home to a pioneer moor of extraordinary species richness. Lycopods, primitive and discrete plants close to ferns, but biological heritage of national and European interest. The management of the winter and summer high use of the site is an important issue for the Biological Reserve.
The RBD Hochfeld is included in the Natura 2000 site (Habitats Directive) “Champ du Feu”.
Geology – Pedology
The geological substrate of the reserve is granite in nature. Under forest cover, the soils are of acid brown type. However, following the stripping and stripping following the creation of the ski slope, the grounds of the reserve are truncated, even skeletal, and little humus. This is why only a low and sparse pioneer moor develops.
Natural environments
It is by its pioneer moor that the reserve is remarkable. This type of natural habitat is of community interest (CB: 31.213 – N2000: 4030), but the heath of the Hochfeld draws in addition a very particular interest of its exceptional cryptogamic flora.
Areas more or less formerly deforested but not stripped include montane grasslands with steep Nard (36.31 – 6230 *), all bordered by a whitish beech (41.11 – 9110) beech forest, representative of the climax forests of the montane forest floor. Vosges on acid soils.
Flora
Of the ten French lycopods, there are no fewer than seven taxa in the Hochfeld RBD, most of them in the “skinned” moors of the ski slope. The Club Lycopodium, the one-year-old Branchleaf and the Regionally Protected Lycopodium are three relatively common species in the Vosges. On the other hand, rare are the Alpine Lycopod (PN), the Little Cypress Lycopod (PN) and finally two species of hybrid origin, the Zeiller’s Lycopod and the Oellgaard’s Lycopod. Uniquely, it is at Hochfeld that this species has been discovered and described, and it is known elsewhere only in a few sites of the Massif Central.
Wildlife
The interest of the RBD Hochfeld is essentially floristic. The fauna is more discreet and less remarkable. The Red Frog and the Lizards viviparous (listed in Appendix 4 of the Habitats Directive) are present in the reserve, as well as the Common Toad (all three are protected at the national level). Species with large territory, the Gray Wolf and the Boreal Lynx (PN, DH2 and 4) are discreetly presents on the massif. The open environments allow to observe the Decticel verrucivore, a protected Orthoptère (PN) whose females are endowed with an impressive oviscapte which gave it the name of Grasshopper.
Management
The pioneer moor is a habitat of high heritage value but which remains relatively ephemeral. Even if the stripped soil is particularly ungrateful and unfavorable for the development of the forest, the moorland and the small species that are the Lycopods must face the invasion by woody pioneers (Rowan’s mountain ash, Spruce …). This is why regular operations of grubbing and grinding woody have proved indispensable in the reserve.
After presentation of the updated Green List assessment and discussions, French EAGL experts voted unanimously in favor of renewing the Green List label
for the Hochfeld Managed Biological Reserve. In addition to the recommendations drafted by the reviewer, the EAGL further suggests to the management
team:
• To monitoring visitor attendance in both reserves, given the significant increase in visitation observed in recent years and its potential impacts on
the natural values of both sites ;
• To map water extraction sources in the Champ du Feu Reserve and to monitor the quantity of water extracted by the private sector, especially near
wetland areas, particularly bogs.
Regarding water management, and considering the water scarcity threat regarding wetlands maintenance, the French EAGL and IUCN French Committee could support the ONF in its request to conduct a hydrogeological study on the Champ du Feu Reserve and in its initiative to shift toward a public water distribution network. Concerning the economic and touristic development project led by the European Collectivity of Alsace, the French EAGL will assess during the Green List mid-term evaluation in 2027 that this project, should it be implemented, does not significantly impact the natural values and ecosystem services of the Champ du Feu Reserve.
