Meadow orchards in the Northern Black Forest

Meadow orchards are not plantation rows: widely spaced tall apple, pear and other fruit trees stand on extensively used meadows, often with old varieties rarely found in supermarkets. Grass grows under and between the trees; in spring it blooms, in autumn ripe fruit scents the air. For a long time this was the typical landscape of Heckengau and the Biet plateau.

This open structure makes meadow orchards one of Central Europe's most species-rich habitats. Birds, bats, wild bees and countless insects live in tree crowns, grassland and forest edges - clearly more diversity than on intensively mown meadows or monoculture orchards. The old trees also shape the hillside view between pine forest and open land with broad Biet vistas.

In the 20th century many sites were removed or neglected. Housing development, more intensive farming and missing successors turned formerly common orchard meadows into isolated remnants. Without pruning, replanting and extensive mowing, trees decline, and with them habitat and diverse fruit varieties disappear.

That is why Baden-Wurttemberg has long invested in preservation and restoration. Support includes professional pruning, landscape care and networking among owners, associations and cider producers, aiming to protect stocks and habitats for orchard-specific species. Larger orchard stocks are protected under nature conservation law; conversion is only possible with compensation. The guiding principle is "preservation through use": juice from regional cider mills, value-added pricing for near-natural care, and volunteer pruning. Current funding information for meadow orchards is available via the state orchard portal.

Around Schellbronn, this history is visible in the landscape. At the edge of the Buchelberg nature reserve, in Muhlhausen and on the outskirts of Schellbronn, larger orchard areas once existed; today often only individual trees remain. A living counterexample is the Streuobstwiese Herzbohnengarten in Steinegg: the local BUND group has maintained tall native varieties there for decades, including pruning and harvest, and has secured the area long-term.

In Ferienpark Schellbronn and around Schellbronn, you often walk directly through this landscape: meadow orchards and single trees between forest paths and Heckengau fields, white-pink blossom in spring, fruit in late summer where collecting is permitted. No fixed program needed, rather a slow walk, picnic within sight of trees, photos in evening light. Meadow orchards here are not decoration but part of a Black Forest break between pine forest and open highland.