Limburg wildfire wiped out rare juniper shrubland

Fewer than 100 of the roughly 4,000 juniper bushes that grew in the Boschhuizerbergen nature reserve near Venray have survived this month’s wildfire in northern Limburg, the foundation that manages the site says.

The reserve held the largest juniper shrubland in the southern Netherlands, according to Het Limburgs Landschap, with some bushes more than 130 years old. Junipers grow slowly and thrive in the reserve’s nutrient-poor, drifting-sand soil – conditions that have become rare in the region.

The fire, which broke out on August 3, destroyed around 100 hectares, including 20 to 30 hectares of protected Natura 2000 land where the junipers stood. More than a week on, crews were still pouring water on smouldering hotspots to stop them reigniting.

The shrubland might not be able to be re-established, as the soil has changed over the decades and young plants may struggle to take root. “It is questionable whether we will ever get such a beautiful shrubland here again. I am afraid I will not live to see it,” the foundation’s Loek Hendrikx told broadcaster NOS.

Het Limburgs Landschap, set up in 1931 to stop the reserve being cleared for farmland, has appealed for donations towards a recovery it says will take years.