Forest recrea­ti­on para­di­se in spring

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Start of the hiking and cycling sea­son: important rules of con­duct in the gre­at outdoors

Mist still hangs bet­ween the trees in places and in the mor­ning the old lea­ves on the forest flo­or are cover­ed in hoar­frost. But the first buds can alre­a­dy be seen in some places. Snow­drops and cro­cu­ses sprout along the roadsi­de, heral­ding the start of spring. 

The birds have also found their way back into the local forests and are sin­ging loud­ly. As the ever stron­ger rays of suns­hi­ne fall through the still light tree­tops, you can feel that natu­re is awakening. 

Start of spring = start of the new acti­ve tra­vel season

And with spring, the new hiking and cycling sea­son final­ly beg­ins. While the high alpi­ne regi­ons are still cover­ed in snow, lower-lying paths are alre­a­dy invi­ting you to go wal­king, hiking and cycling. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you will dis­co­ver the won­ders of natu­re with every step you take. 

Num­e­rous won­ders can be obser­ved in the forest in spring: Buds peek out of the ground, the lush green of the mos­ses and ferns shi­nes brigh­ter than ever, birds warb­le their most beau­tiful songs to impress poten­ti­al mates. With a bit of luck, you may even catch a glim­pse of nati­ve wild ani­mals such as foxes or deer. 

Howe­ver, most of what hap­pens in the spring forest is so small that we can’t even see it. Micro­or­ga­nisms in the soil beco­me more acti­ve, the old autumn lea­ves decom­po­se and pro­vi­de the new plants with important nut­ri­ents. It is an inter­play of many dif­fe­rent orga­nisms from which new life emer­ges and thrives. 

Rules of con­duct in the forest

This makes it all the more important that we as humans respect and pro­tect this eco­sys­tem. The most important rules of con­duct for forest walks should the­r­e­fo­re always be observed: 

Stay on the paths!

Hiking trails are deli­bera­te­ly desi­gned so that we can move around in the forest wit­hout des­troy­ing sen­si­ti­ve are­as. Away from the paths, wild ani­mals have their retre­at, plants and mush­rooms would be trampled. 

Do not lea­ve any gar­ba­ge behind!

Ever­y­thing that is brought into the forest should also be taken out again. Take pack­a­ging, glass bot­t­les, hand­ker­chiefs, lef­to­ver food and other gar­ba­ge to the nea­rest gar­ba­ge can or take it home again. 

Do not dis­turb the animals!

The forest is the habi­tat of many ani­mals. If you are lucky enough to be able to obser­ve them, keep your distance and remain calm. Do not feed the animals! 

Respect the plants!

Plants are important orga­nisms in the forest eco­sys­tem. Don’t uproot plants just becau­se you want to take a pret­ty sou­ve­nir with you. The bees and insects need the flowers more urgen­tly. Only coll­ect (e.g. mush­rooms, ber­ries) whe­re it is per­mit­ted and in small quantities. 

Keep your dog under control!

Keep your dog on a lead or well-con­trol­led within cal­ling distance in the forest. Dogs could frigh­ten wild ani­mals or end­an­ger young animals. 

Do not start a fire!

Open fires can quick­ly beco­me dan­ge­rous in the forest and are the­r­e­fo­re usual­ly pro­hi­bi­ted. Ciga­ret­tes should also not be thrown away in the forest. 

Be con­side­ra­te of others — plants, ani­mals and peo­p­le too!

The forest is a place of recrea­ti­on for many peo­p­le. The­r­e­fo­re, make sure you don’t make any noi­se and tre­at other recrea­tio­nists in a fri­end­ly and coope­ra­ti­ve manner. 

Con­side­ra­te beha­vi­or in natu­re and the con­tri­bu­ti­on of each indi­vi­du­al is an important step towards pro­tec­ting our forests. Howe­ver, real, sus­tainable pro­tec­tion requi­res more than that. As an acti­ve tour ope­ra­tor, natu­re and the pro­tec­tion of our forests are par­ti­cu­lar­ly important to us. Tha­t’s why we actively sup­port this with every boo­king. As a part­ner of the Moun­tain Forest Pro­ject, we help to pro­fes­sio­nal­ly pro­tect and pre­ser­ve forests. 

Moun­tain forest pro­ject: Com­mit­ment to our moun­tain forests

For over 35 years, the Berg­wald­pro­jekt has been working with thou­sands of vol­un­teers every year to pro­tect and res­to­re our eco­sys­tems. In forests, on muds­li­de slo­pes and in open land­scapes throug­hout Ger­ma­ny, they are actively invol­ved — always with the aim of pre­ser­ving our natu­ral habi­tats in the long term. 

This invol­ves plan­ting nati­ve trees, res­to­ring pro­tec­tion forests and main­tai­ning valuable bio­to­pes. This crea­tes new habi­tats for count­less ani­mal and plant spe­ci­es and allows important eco­sys­tems to rege­ne­ra­te. Ano­ther important part of the work is edu­ca­ti­on: in coope­ra­ti­on with NGOs and uni­ver­si­ties, the moun­tain forest pro­ject pro­vi­des infor­ma­ti­on about the end­an­ge­red sta­te of many eco­sys­tems and the cau­ses of the­se developments. 

Wha­t’s par­ti­cu­lar­ly gre­at is that ever­yo­ne can get invol­ved. During plan­ting days or pro­ject weeks, vol­un­teers actively help to pro­tect our natu­ral resour­ces. You can find the dates and loca­ti­ons on the web­site: https://www.bergwaldprojekt.de.

Sus­taina­bi­li­ty com­mit­ment at Feu­er und Eis Touristik

Every Feu­er und Eis cus­to­mer auto­ma­ti­cal­ly makes a con­tri­bu­ti­on. With every boo­king, we dona­te to the Berg­wald­pro­jekt e.V. and thus con­tri­bu­te to the pro­tec­tion of our forests every day. In 2025, we inves­ted over €12,000 in the pro­tec­tion and pre­ser­va­ti­on of the forests in our home regi­on of Tegernsee/Schliersee.

For even more envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious beha­vi­or and sus­tainable busi­ness manage­ment, we are also on the way to being cer­ti­fied as a sus­tainable tour ope­ra­tor by Tra­ve­li­fe. We look for­ward to fur­ther mini­mi­zing our foot­print to pro­tect the natu­re we love so much.