Currently, many people are drawn to the fresh air due to the lack of other leisure activities.
For Johann Fritz (81) this has been an integral part of his life for decades.
For 20 years he has been one of the nature conservation guards in the Dachau district.
Dachau
- Johann Fritz from Bergkirchnen has always been drawn to the mountains, but he also always enjoyed being out and about in the Dachau district. And the 81-year-old has also been active for a long time with the Bund Naturschutz When he retired as a federal railway official in 2000, Fritz decided to do “something useful” in any case. Then he came across the job advertisement from the district office, which was looking for a nature conservation guard. "This is the link between the Lower Nature Conservation Authority and the population," explains Fritz, who was sworn in after passing the exam.
Johann Fritz does not only work for the district, he also offers guided tours and hikes through the Vhs Bergkirchen and for schools.
The trips with children and young people are particularly nice for him.
Climbing over the Olympic roof with them, as he did for many years, is no longer necessarily the case.
Anyone who marches along the Amper with Johann Fritz, however, still trusts him to do so.
Sure-footed, full of vigor, with a sharp look and a glow in his eyes, Fritz is out and about in his areas twice a week.
He then covers between four and six kilometers in one day.
This time it is the turn of the so-called juniper willow, which Josef Keller, co-founder of the BN, had rediscovered.
Keller died in May 2010 and bequeathed everything to the Bund Naturschutz, which takes care of the area.
The small natural paradise is also mowed by the municipal utilities, which are in the immediate vicinity of the Gündinger Wehr.
About 15 years ago, Johann Fritz, with their support, also got a grip on the wild balsam, which was spreading more and more.
“The municipal utilities are already mowing at the beginning of July, there are still no seeds,” the nature conservation guard explains the success.
The 81-year-old native of Bergkirchen explains all the plants, shrubs and trees on the way through the juniper heather. But he is also very familiar with the Amper and all other bodies of water in the district, and knows the courses and sources. It shows "Bavaria's only real liana", the clematis. “As with Tarzan,” laughs the conservationist.
But it also warns against picking plants and herbs.
As with wild garlic, which can easily be confused with poisonous plants, such as the autumn crocus, which, together with monkshood, is one of the most poisonous plants in Europe.
“Many rub the wild garlic, which smells like garlic, to check whether it is wild garlic.
But if after a while your hands smell of garlic and you pick something else, then it smells of garlic too, ”warns Fritz, who prefers to grow his herbs in his own garden.
However, many walkers don't just pick wild garlic, they simply prick out plants that they then want to use again in the garden at home.
"That is forbidden in the landscape protection area," explains Fritz, who sometimes lets people bring the plants back and bury them again.
He must also point out dog owners regularly that they are on a leash, especially during the breeding season.
His secret recipe: “You just have to talk to people properly.” Most of the time, the response is positive.
In rare cases, however, it does get loud.
“An elderly lady yelled at me like that last year,” recalls Fritz.
What worries him is the growing waste problem.
"We can find thousands of schnapps bottles on the streets." Especially during the pandemic, alcohol consumption seems to have increased, Fritz suspects based on his findings.
The 81-year-old is also a trained beaver consultant. However, he will hand over this office to a successor in the summer. Fritz remembers the year 2010 well, when a farmer in Palsweiser Moos penetrated too far into the peat layer. The area threatened to dry out. The Palsweiser Moos did not exist in its current form, there was only a small ditch. But the beavers created a uniquely beautiful lake landscape, and Fritz worked to ensure that farmers and beavers got along as neighbors. As a beaver consultant, he didn't just make friends at first. But it is also thanks to his tireless efforts and patience that the understanding of the importance of the beaver was awakened.
After the last beaver was shot in Bavaria in 1867, animals that had been fetched from the Elbe were released again in 1966 in order to bring them back home in Bavaria. "The beaver is incredibly important for nature, but has no natural enemies," says Fritz, explaining the rapid spread. He himself is “incredibly fascinated by the perfect dam construction” of the animals, but also understands the other side. With tricks - without having to kill the beaver - Johann Fritz has already been able to resolve many conflicts. He fills canisters with stones and hangs them in rivers and streams. If the beaver hits it while swimming, it “rattles”. The beaver is frightened, build the dam elsewhere.
Johann Fritz passed on his passion for nature to his son Walter and his grandchildren Tobias and Christoph.
"Tobias is even crazier than I was," smiles the 81-year-old when he reports on the climbing tours, alpine marathons and world trips of his 30-year-old grandson.
The whole Fritz family just likes to be outside - on foot, on the bike, or on a climbing rope.
Simone Wester