Western European broadleaf forests

The Western European broadleaf forests ecoregion covers an area of 492,357 km² (190,100 sq mi), including the Massif Central, Central German Uplands, Jura Mountains, Bavarian Plateau, and Bohemian Massif.

This area has been inhabited for thousands of years and holds several large cities such as Lyon, Nancy and Munich. Most of the countryside has been cleared for agricultural land, cultivated with cereals (corn, wheat, oats), and to a smaller extent grapes. The ecoregion hosts a good variety of animal species, birds in particular, but most large mammals are in decline.

The forest habitats of the ecoregion comprise mainly lowland and alti-montane mixed beech forests. There is also some natural beech woods, and the region also includes small parts of sub-Mediterranean forest habitats.

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  Broadleaf forests (Teutoburger Forest, Germany)
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  Conifer in the montane parts
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  Inside the conifer forests (Black Forest, Germany)
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  European beech is abundant in many submontane parts
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  Mountain streams, rocky ground, and deciduous trees in a mix with conifer
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  Autumn
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  Many valleys have been cleared for villages and agriculture

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  Wolf
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  Lynx
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  Wild boar
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  Stag
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  Fire salamander
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  Anthill

Most of the original forest of the ecoregion has been cleared in the last 200 years, but a few larger patches remain, typically in non-arable montane areas that are part of national parks or protections. The woodlands of the ecoregion is generally second-growth and heavily fragmented.

National parks and larger nature protections in the ecoregion includes:

Luxembourg maintains the Upper Sûre Natural Park, but this park covers mostly the Upper Sûre Lake, an artificial dam created in 1959, and no land area of significance. The lake is an important bird area. Luxembourg also holds part of the cross-border German-Luxembourg Nature Park in addition to several smaller nature reservations. Here eco-typical patches of forest are growing.

Austria does not have any protections in this ecoregion.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Western European broadleaf forests.

• "Western European broadleaf forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.