The Wildacker, which the Böbingen hunting tenant Werner Schubert laid out between Böbing and Schönberg, is 30 square meters in size.
What this is all about, he reveals in the next part of the series “What is growing there?”.
Schönberg - A few withered maize plants can still be guessed, plus some sunflowers, some wheat, a lot of clover forms a thick, green carpet on the ground - a fairly normal mix of catch crops, one might think. However, this small field is not in a field, but in the middle of the forest between Böbing and Schönberg, in the Hirtmoos area. The responsible hunting tenant Werner Schubert (78) created this so-called wild field for the first time this year.
Located off the road, the 30 square meter field is part of a curious, almost rectangular clearing.
“It used to be a peat cut,” says Schubert.
In fact, it is like walking on the soft ground like on a trampoline.
The approximately 70 by 15 meter area has become a playground for wild animals: Badgers, foxes, hares and of course wild boars and deer have already been observed by Schubert from his high seat, which he set up on the edge of the clearing - or from his two Wildlife cameras that he explicitly points out on a sign.
Unfortunately, dogs often run free too.
Wildacker should help to prevent game browsing
Schubert often sits there on the hunt and, in addition to salt licks, has also prepared grinding trees for the wild boars, on which they can rub off their parasites. In addition to numerous deer, he has already killed twelve wild boars in this and another place in the past year and a half, a considerable number. Because the animals are as shy as they are smart: "Sometimes the game camera reports a pack, but by the time I get there, they are usually gone again - and don't come back anytime soon," he says.
But what is the Wildacker all about?
It is a new way of preventing roe deer from being bitten by game.
Because Schubert's 100 hectare area consists of 90 percent forest, and in winter there is nothing more to be found in the few meadows in the area - that's why the deer like to nibble on the tender shoots of the regrowing trees.
This prevents natural rejuvenation.
The Wildacker should be twice as big next year
"The wild field offers the possibility that the animals look for their food there instead of the trees," says Schubert.
The deer smell the plants on the wild field, scratch it free in snow and prefer to eat there than on the trees - at least that's the theory, because Schubert has never had any experience with it.
"And unfortunately the field also hit the hail, so the maize didn't come out."
Nevertheless, Schubert has firm plans to double the small Wildacker to 60 square meters in the next year.
Then he might be able to observe more roe deer in his clearing and, after the end of the closed season in May, kill them again.
BORIS FORSTNER