Johannes hollein the wrangling over the canoeists on the wiesent seems to have come to an amicable end. A four-hour hearing at the administrative court of bayreuth, which had previously dealt with a lawsuit filed by the bund naturschutz (BN) seeking a ban on canoe operation for a certain period of time, ended with a compromise.
Representatives of the government of upper franconia, the district’s fisheries advisory board, the district office of forchheim, the three canoe rental companies and the BN (each with legal counsel) agreed with three judges on future regulations on the meadow and short-term improvements for the protection of endangered species. As BN writes in a press release, the following was settled: 1. The district office of forchheim has a contractual impact assessment drawn up (the order for this was already issued before the BN lawsuit) and amends the navigation permit from 12. April 2018, which previously regulated boat traffic on the wiesent. The number of the boat and the route, as well as the name and address of all passengers, are to be documented in the future. 2. In the period from 1. To 15. June the river wiesent downstream from the entry point streitberg to the exit point ebermannstadt may no longer be navigated with rental boats. The route from muggendorf/beru to streitberg may only be used with guides during this period and only after 12 noon. At the pulvermuhle embarkation point, the rental boats were only allowed to embark during the period 9.30 to 11 a.M. And 1 to 2 p.M.30 o’clock will take place. At the doos boarding point, no more boardings are allowed after 12 noon during the period mentioned above. 3. The federation for nature conservation will be informed about important results in the approval procedure for the period after september 2020 and in the context of the contract review already underway and will be involved accordingly. 4. The district office will promptly follow up on any reported offences, taking into account the principle of proportionality. 5. The members of the nature guard will be retrained in order to be able to effectively prosecute violations. 6. Spot checks of the logbooks are carried out with a comparison of the actual trips made, even during the season. 7. The landratsamt will take into account the current water levels and, if technically necessary, will also order closures of the waterway outside the limits specified in the notice, as has already been the practice this season due to the low water level. 8. The nature conservation alliance can participate in the instruction of canoe tourists by the rental companies, these are coordinated among themselves. In the event that several boat hirers are on site and wish to use the meadow, the briefing by the invited persons will take place in groups and also the launching of the boats into the water will take place immediately one after the other.
New navigation permit
The agreements are effective immediately. The proceedings of the BN (urgent action for immediate execution, action against the shipping permit) are now over. After the contractual investigation – the wish of the conservationists – in 2020 will be to work out a new navigation permit.