Dominik Landerer is a nature park ranger in the Ammergau Alps.
His job: to wake up and educate.
The daily newspaper accompanied him.
BY PAULINA PORER
Oberammergau
- Out and about all day, with the pick-up in search of poachers - this is how Dominik Landerer always imagined the African ranger.
He already met them in the USA - rangers who cross national parks with baton and pepper spray;
two rifles inside their trucks.
Landerer has binoculars and a first aid kit in his backpack. He has been a ranger in the Ammergau Alps Nature Park for three years. The 31-year-old trudges over the gravel on Altherrenweg in his sturdy mountain boots. He points across the green meadows in the direction of the Pulvermoos nature reserve - “an eight-meter-thick layer of bog that was formed after the last ice age,” says the ranger. "In between, the Ammer flows through as a river landscape and then of course we also have forests and all the mountains that you can otherwise see better if you are lucky," he says with a laugh. Under the thick cloud cover, maples and beeches show their most beautiful autumn colors. Ringing cowbells. "Everyone wants to go out into nature and that is understandable because it is beautiful," says the native of Rottenbuch.
The urge to go outside is huge, but the big problem is the ignorance of many people;
that few really think about it.
"This is where we come into play, that we educate people about the special features here, what they have to pay attention to and what the consequences can be if they are inconsiderate."
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Beavers were busy gnawing in the Ammertal: Landerer observes the animals closely and educates visitors to the nature park.
© Paulina Porer
Together with Deniz Göcen and Thomas Weber, they form the ranger team of the nature park, which covers around a quarter of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district with an area of 227 square kilometers. It extends over an area from the Echelsbacher Brücke to the Ettaler Sattel and Graswangtal. Since Dominik Landerer is from the area himself and has been out and about in the mountains a lot as a child, he knows the area and would like to do something to protect the local nature. “It has annoyed me many times that there is simply a lack of understanding for nature and that many are inconsiderate. Nature doesn't need us, but we do need nature. "
Landerer studied geography and renewable raw materials and always hoped to find a job where he could work inside and outside - “that works great here”. As a nature park ranger, for example, he also designs maps on the computer, which are then printed with explanations and set up as boards for wildlife sanctuaries. In addition, the rangers organize volunteer projects and develop ideas on how to equip walkways with rubbish bins, for example, so that piles and bags of dog waste are no longer left lying around. The team is also considering how to set dog routes so that wild animals are not disturbed. Most people are not even aware of the effects of being on the move. "You just don't think anything about it, especially because you don't see the animals."
An important goal in the Ammergau Alps Nature Park: visitor management
With or without a dog - the rangers' work is often about visitor management.
Landerer points to Aufacker, one of the wildlife sanctuaries in which there is feeding and entry is prohibited in winter.
"Especially in wildlife and nature reserves, the rules are not there for fun, but because animals should simply have a place to retreat," explains the ranger.
All protected areas can be viewed on the homepage of the nature park.
On the other hand, there is no ban on entering the nature park orchards in Altenau at any time.
Landerer takes a few steps to a large apple tree adorned with brightly colored watering cans. Each of them stands for 100 liters of water that fall here every year. There are other stations where you can learn more about plants and the climate in a playful way. The ranger bends down and puts a piece of plastic in one of the pockets of his brown cargo pants. "If everyone bends down every now and then and takes a piece with them, it would look completely different."
The ranger picks one last apple from the tree in the garden, then it goes on to the Ammerschleifen.
Here Landerer would like to walk the route along which he would like to educate the participants of a ranger tour about the wild river landscape on Sunday, as well as sensitize them to protected species such as the beaver and sandpiper.
He's a little off the beaten track.
Dry leaves rustle.
Biber is hard at work in the nature park
Then he stops in the middle of the bushes. There are four trees around the ranger, on which several beavers were probably at work, he suspects. The gnawing sites can be clearly seen on the pointed tree stumps. “It's just really impressive. He gnawed seven or eight up there, ”says Landerer with astonishment. Such tours on a wide variety of topics take place every second Sunday, and every week during the Bavarian holidays. Often these are also done by experts who specialize in certain topics such as orchids or adders.
Dominik Landerer's aim is to get people excited about nature and to show them how to behave in a way that is environmentally friendly. "This consideration for one another - that is very important," he emphasizes.
"It's just a shame when everything breaks down and many other species depend on every plant and every animal that goes extinct, and they can also be lost," explains the ranger.
“When a species disappears, it can set off a chain reaction.
Nature is a mosaic. "
In order to understand this complexity, it is best to look directly at it in nature and rethink which behavior affects how.
“At some point you want to leave something behind for your children,” he says.
The ranger refers to an Indian wisdom: "We did not inherit the world from our ancestors, but borrowed it from our children."