Stamping point 8 / Stamping beech

The Stempelsbuche crossroads (671 m above sea level) is located on the Heinrich Heine Trail, which leads from Ilsenburg to the Brocken.

The stamp­ing sta­tion is also locat­ed in the refuge here. It prob­a­bly got its name from the once mag­nif­i­cent beech tree, which now only exists as a stump. 

From Stem­pels­buche you can con­tin­ue the tourto Brock­en­haus HWN 9, Gel­ber Brink HWN 22, Fer­di­nandsstein HWN 16 or the Schar­fen­stein ranger sta­tion HWN 2.

Between Bre­mer Klippe and Stem­pels­buche HWN 8, you hike through dead spruce forests. This may fright­en hik­ers, but the nation­al park has the fol­low­ing strat­e­gy for deal­ing with this problem: 

Quote Harz National Park:

Tar­get­ed inter­ven­tions to cre­ate the wilder­ness of tomor­row

Forests are on the move. If peo­ple do not inter­vene, they fol­low their own for­est laws. But because humans have overused the for­est in past cen­turies, we must help the cul­ti­vat­ed for­est to become a nat­ur­al for­est again. In the nation­al park, we sim­ply leave the for­est to its own devices in areas that are already close to nature and trust in its pow­ers (nat­ur­al dyam­ic zone). In oth­er areas, we give it a help­ing hand, keep the bark bee­tle at bay or pro­mote the cycle of life of growth and decay (nature devel­op­ment zone). 

Natural dynamic zone

For­est in the nat­ur­al dynam­ic zone is left to its own devices. There is no more human inter­ven­tion here. The only excep­tions are bark bee­tle con­trol in a 500-metre-wide strip on the out­er bor­ders of the nation­al park and traf­fic safe­ty along impor­tant paths. 

Nature development zone

In the nature devel­op­ment zones, the nation­al park is still car­ry­ing out mea­sures to increase the close­ness to nature in these areas. This improves struc­tur­al diver­si­ty and eco­log­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty and pro­motes decid­u­ous trees. No eco­nom­ic goals are being pur­sued. How­ev­er, the wood pro­duced in the for­est can be used. 

Bark beetle control

Bark bee­tle con­trol is car­ried out accord­ing to the fol­low­ing principles:

• Con­trol on the out­er bor­der to pro­tect endan­gered neigh­bor­ing pop­u­la­tions (in a strip approx. 500 m wide)
• Pro­tec­tion of large spruce com­plex­es in the nature devel­op­ment zone
• No mea­sures in the nat­ur­al dynam­ic zone (with the excep­tion of bark bee­tles in the bor­der area)

Our aim is for at least 75% of the nation­al park area to be left to its own devices by 2022, i.e. to be clas­si­fied as a nat­ur­al dynam­ic zone.