City forest residents do not want horses - and have galloped

Evidence of anger: hoof prints in the Dachau city forest. © Private

There are citizens who are bothered by riding in the city forest. The horses were too big, the riders would be on the road with them on forbidden paths. And then there are the nasty horse droppings. The ungulates have no place in the city forest, according to the critics. But they are mistaken.

Dachau – For many years, residents have been complaining about the conditions in the Dachau city forest. Sometimes it is said that there are too wide aisles for the machines of the forest workers, sometimes people complain that the forest workers would cut down too many trees. Or too few. When felled, they are bothered by the piles of wood along the paths for the walkers. That's where the bark beetle goes, according to a common lament. Incidentally, it does not, as foresters and the forestry office emphasize, because the insect needs living trees and only attacks weakened spruces. Now a larger animal is the focus of criticism: the horse.

At the citizens' meeting for Dachau-Süd at the end of April (we reported), a resident complained that horses were also on the move in the Dachau city forest where it was not intended. The animals would pollute the paths of the city forest with their legacies. Now the local newspaper received a message from another citizen who makes similar claims.

The use of the city forest by riders is getting out of hand, the lady writes. "And I'm not talking about cute little Icelandic ponies, but about adult horses and their legacies," it continues. Horses, according to the complainant, "simply have no place" in the city forest!

Well, that's where the protester is wrong. "According to the Bavarian Nature Conservation Act, anyone is allowed to enter all parts of the great outdoors free of charge for the enjoyment of natural beauty and recreation without official permission and without the consent of the landowner or other authorized persons," says city architect Moritz Reinhold. Although this only applies to "activities within the framework of traditional forms of leisure activities and sports," Reinhold continues, this explicitly includes horseback riding.

At the citizens' meeting, Lord Mayor Florian Hartmann promised to reflect on riding in the city forest and to think about the matter. According to Reinhold, head of the building authority, the head of the city has now done so. The result: "Riding in the city forest is permissible for the reasons mentioned above and desired by the legislator," Reinhold quotes his boss as saying.

When asked by the local newspaper whether there had been clashes or even collisions between horses on one side and walkers, children, dogs, walkers, joggers or cyclists on the other side in the forest in the past, Christian Olschowsky, head of the traffic department at the Dachau police, replied that in recent years "no accidents recorded by the police, complaints or complaints between riders and other road users".

The question remains whether there are marked paths on which the riders have to stay. According to Olschowsky, this is only the case if the paths are marked by a traffic law order with a traffic sign – riding prohibited. There are no signs in this regard.

By the way, the small, cute Icelandic ponies, which the citizen would just tolerate in the city forest, no longer exist there. The "ranch" on which they lived, which is particularly popular with children, must be eliminated by autumn 2023, according to an order from the city. But the paddock is already empty.