The Baarn Forests between Amsterdam and Utrecht face growing tourism pressure from hikers, mountain bikers, horse riders, and dog owners. In hotspots like Lage Vuursche, Drakensteyn Castle, and Royal Palace Soestdijk, forester Rein Berends and Staatsbosbeheer struggle to protect this 1,200-hectare Utrecht Ridge nature reserve amid rising visitor numbers and limited supervision resources.
The Baarn forests between the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht in the Netherlands are seriously threatened by tourists from the rest of the Netherlands and the surrounding countries. In the vicinity of Baarn, there are. Many campsites and catering establishments, so tourists are eager to use them. There are many campsites, hotels and guesthouses. Most visitors are hikers, mountain bikers, joggers and/or hikers with dogs. In some places in these beautiful nature reserves, it is allowed to let the dogs run free in the beautiful forests. Unfortunately, this beautiful area is not treated with respect by every tourist. We spoke with forester Rein Berends about how he and his team deal with this.
Heavy Tourist Impact on Baarn’s Nature Reserves
The area is supervised by the Forestry Commission. According to this body, which I spoke to by telephone, daily supervision is carried out by the specially appointed forestry Lage Vuursche, where Mr. Rein Berends is in charge. This institution is located in the woods between the city of Baarn and the village of Lage Vuursche. Lage Vuursche is a village where the stagecoaches used to have their resting place, and which is now better known as the pancake village of the Netherlands. Tourists come far and wide to eat pancakes with their entire families. There is also the Drakensteyn Castle, in which the former Dutch Queen Beatrix lives. Baarn is a city with a beautiful shopping street, a weekly market, many festivities and restaurants, and of course the former Royal Palace Soestdijk. In nearby Hilversum, “the broadcasting city of the Netherlands,” there are even more tourist opportunities.
Visitor Supervision in the Baarn Forest Area
As mentioned earlier, supervision of this tourist area is guaranteed by the Forestry Commission, and of course, the local police that is present there. Staatsbosbeheer is mainly concerned with the management of the nature reserves and the supervision thereof. The forester of this area, Mr. Rein Berends, whom we had the opportunity to speak to by telephone about the current situation, told us that it was not easy to ensure the right order at this time. Despite the fact that Mr. Berends is employed by one of the richest foundations in the Netherlands, he says he is sparse in his staff. Mr. Berends told me that he has to manage this 1200-hectare site with only two permanent employees, and two hired employees who are paid by the City of Baarn.
Lage Vuursche: from Historic stagecoach stop to tourist hotspot
Unfortunately, Mr. Berends could not tell us why, in our opinion, he gets so few staff at his disposal from the Forestry Commission. However, he was able to tell us a little more about the possible income. He told us that the area is, in principle, freely accessible to all tourists, with the exception of the Mountain Bikers and the jockeys (horse riders). The mountain bikers for whom a route of about thirty kilometres has been built around Baarn would have to pay € 7.50 (7.50 euros) per year to be able to use this beautiful infrastructure. This income benefits the MTB Heuvelrug Foundation. This foundation recently made 1,000,000 (1 million) Euros available for the preservation of the nature of the Utrecht Ridge. (The mountain bike area). Of course, this foundation also has costs, but there is no insight into the number of Vignettes that are sold annually by the foundation. These vignettes are always valid for one calendar year, and the control lies with the Forestry Commission. The latter can issue fines to Mountain Bikers without a valid vignette and to dog owners whose dogs are not under Apel or on a leash in the designated areas.
Staffing Challenges for Nature. Reserve protection
From various documents, we conclude that the Heuvelrug MTB Foundation outsources much of its work, such as setting out routes to volunteers, and therefore has relatively few costs. This is also the reason why they were able to donate the one million euros to the Forestry Commission. (Funny to know is that a foundation in the Netherlands is not allowed to make a profit, is this why a donation of 1 million Euros was made to Staatsbosbeheer, otherwise should it go to the tax? Ed.) Of course, we also inquired with the Foundation itself. We visited “Bos café Buiten in de Kuil” which is seen as the “clubhouse” of the Mountain Biker,s where the vignettes are also sold, unfortunately, no one wanted to talk to us there. Don’t they supervise those Mountain Bikers?
Horse riding fees and maintenance costs in Baarn Forest, is it expensive to remove horse poop?
Compared to the mountain bikers, the horse owners pay € 80 per year to enter the area. Could this be because the Forestry Commission sometimes has to remove the horse droppings? (The horse owners we spoke to in the area were quite indignant when they learned of this price difference.) According to Mr. Berends, supervision in this area is almost impossible to maintain with so few staff. He was also concerned that tourism in the area would increase rapidly, with even more Mountain Bikers and riders on horseback. However, he said: “that we should not pay attention to the Mountain Bikers, but more to the pedestrians, because according to him they caused much more nuisance.” We think it is a shame that this fantastic nature reserve is slowly dying in our eyes.
Balancing recreation and nature preservation
In this 1200-hectare nature reserve, hikers with or without dogs, Mountain Bikers and horse lovers recreate together and pass each other. In some parts of this area, the dogs are also allowed to roam freely, but note: “on the signs”, it does say that the dogs have to go under roll call, but how many dogs walking around there are these in reality? Well, time will tell what extent this situation will remain tenable in the coming years. There are likely to be many accidents, and the insurance companies will benefit from it too. But nature, has it lost the battle again?
