Northern Vosges Regional Natural Park, Regional natural park in Grand Est, France
The Northern Vosges Regional Natural Park is a regional natural park spanning 111 communes in Bas-Rhin and Moselle, not the Vosges department or the Vosges mountain summits. Its 127,600 hectares are 65% forested (83,500 hectares), with sandstone bedrock, 2,200 hectares of orchards and the Grand Wintersberg rising to 581 metres. The park's headquarters is at La Petite-Pierre.
The park was created by decree on 30 December 1975, and the German source gives 1976 as its founding year. In 1989 UNESCO recognised it as a biosphere reserve, and in 1998 it became part of the cross-border Pfälzerwald–Vosges du Nord biosphere reserve. Its managing syndicat mixte, SYCOPARC, has its seat in the château at La Petite-Pierre.
The park's name is misleading: it lies outside the Vosges department and does not take in the Vosges peaks, only their northern edge, also called the Vasgovie. Its headquarters occupy the château of La Petite-Pierre. The sandstone subsoil shapes the built landscape, and granite shows at Windstein while grauwacke appears at Wissembourg's Weiler locality.
The area is crisscrossed by a dense network of marked trails suitable for walking, cycling, or horseback riding through the landscape. The best time to visit is from May through October, when weather is stable and trails are most easily accessible.
This territory shares biosphere reserve status with Germany's Pfälzerwald nature reserve across the border, making it a transnational conservation area. This rare international arrangement allows connected ecosystems on both sides of the border to be protected as one system.
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