It's breakfast time in the wilderness workshop in the small village of Düttling in the Eifel. Stout men in trekking gear sit around the large wooden table. Dozens of parkas, rain jackets and high-visibility waistcoats hang on the coat rack. Beneath them are piles of thick hiking boots and wellies. On top: the ranger hats that are typical of the Eifel National Park. One of them belongs to Nina Braun, the only woman working as a ranger in NRW. A petite person. She has a quick chat with her colleagues and then it's off into the forest. "The actual workshop", as the 37-year-old explains when DeinNRW visits her in her little kingdom.
It's hot this morning. The thermometer reads almost 30 degrees as we walk through the "entrance gate" into the marked-out woodland in the centre of North Rhine-Westphalia's only national park. "Into another world, isn't it?" It's not a question Nina Braun is asking. She only returned to the wilderness workshop from parental leave a few weeks ago. "And so much has changed in the forest." A different world? Indeed. We've barely walked a few metres when it's suddenly pleasantly cool. The tall oaks and pines provide shade. It smells of grass, wood and damp moss. The ground is noticeably soft. "After four days of holiday camp in the forest", says our travel companion with a smile, "I always feel like I've come from the moon".
The very next day, it's time again. 25 children will explore nature in the 100-hectare area with Nina and her fellow rangers as part of the annual holiday camp. They will discover animals such as the black dung beetle and the colourful mosaic dragonfly. They will make their own fires, build dams and hide in the forest. In the evening, they will grill bread and sausages in the large wooden tipi.
"After four days of holiday camp in the forest, I always feel like I've come from the moon."
The fact that the mother of a two-year-old son now works alone among men and primarily with children was more or less a coincidence. The 37-year-old is actually a trained hotel manageress. In the tranquil town of Monschau, where she was born and grew up and now runs a small photography gallery with her husband, she worked in the catering industry for several years. She still enjoys spending her evenings in the old town centre with its pretty half-timbered houses, narrow alleyways and cobblestones right on the banks of the Rur. "But at some point I just wanted to do something different professionally." As if she couldn't quite believe it herself, she then recounts how she simply went to the employment agency and was offered a training position as a forester. So the young woman picked up a chainsaw. "Even though I was of course a bit older than the other trainees," she recalls with a twinkle in her eye. Ten years ago, she finally joined the environmental education centre in Düttling - and has rarely touched a chainsaw since.
Instead, the nature lover, who also welcomes holiday guests in her own lovingly renovated "Lehmlounge" in Monschau-Konzen, puts on her rucksack several times a week, packs drinks and food in her handcart and takes school classes into the forest. Of course, every ranger has their own rucksack. They are carefully lined up in the warehouse of the wilderness workshop. In Nina's "survival pack": binoculars, a flint, a rope, blindfolds for the blind voyage of discovery through nature, a first aid pack and ... Nina digs out an old tin with small pieces of paper. "I really must try this game," she remembers at that moment. It's a kind of memory game in which the children in the group have to find their counterparts, so to speak. Incidentally, the 37-year-old doesn't make a plan before her tours. "I usually decide spontaneously what we're going to do," says the forest manager. "After all, every group is different. And it's usually the children themselves who decide how the day goes."
Nina likes to get involved with her little companions. "Some children have never been in the forest before," the young woman marvels again and again at something that she herself took for granted in her childhood in Monschau. Others are scared. However, most of them quickly thaw out and start talking or asking questions. "Something that I think is neglected in everyday life these days." Others sink into playing in a small rivulet and can spend hours building dams. The small barefoot labyrinth that some boys and girls once built themselves is still there. And finally, at the old fire-fighting pond, a biotope densely overgrown with algae and buzzing with dragonflies, "everyone would love to jump into the water straight away during the treasure hunt". That's when the shyness is finally overcome. The primary school children are particularly proud, however, when they are allowed to spray sparks with the flint. Nina explains how she uses simple materials to make the tinder herself, which the little ones can then light. Our ranger has put strips of old jeans in an old tin can and now holds them in the embers. It only takes a few minutes until all that's left of the jeans is carbon - and the homemade tinder is ready. One spark and the campfire is burning. Only under supervision, of course, as there are otherwise clear rules for hikers in the Eifel National Park.
"I learn a lot from the children"
But there are also other, very serious experiences that sometimes make Nina think. "Crazy", she says, "I'm actually in tears now". A short pause. Then the woman, who looks so tough in her shirt, brown trekking trousers and thick hiking boots, talks about a girl in a wheelchair. "The little girl seemed so apathetic, she hardly laughed. Until I put a little bug in her hand ..." It's moments like this that Nina Braun likes so much about her job. "I learn a lot from the children," she says, who was rather shy herself as a child and taught herself a lot through "her own curiosity".
That's why the young mum also enjoys going to the national park in her free time. Colleagues of Nina Braun regularly offer ranger tours in the unique nature reserve, which is often referred to as "the primeval forest of tomorrow". On the Wilderness Trail, which traverses the entire length of the national park in four daily stages, hikers can discover the beauty and special features of the wild and romantic forests, be impressed by the magnificent views of the forest-lake landscapes and stream valleys or simply enjoy the seclusion of nature. With the establishment of the Eifel National Park in 2004, nature is largely left to its own devices. Our guide from the wilderness workshop likes to visit the places where the cycle of growth and decay is particularly evident and, with a little luck and patience, walkers can observe rare birds such as black storks and red-backed shrikes, wall lizards and even red deer. In the barrier-free nature experience area "Wilder Kermeter", there is also the "Wild Path", a nature exploration trail where people with disabilities can also experience the emerging wilderness up close. Nina Braun also praises the new 2000 square metre national park exhibition "Wildnis(t)räume" at Vogelsang International Square and the wide range of activities on offer at the national park gates, such as in nearby Heimbach.
And of course Nina and her husband, who volunteers as a forest guide for the national park alongside his photography, are passing on their love of nature to their young son. For the next four days, however, her two husbands will have to do without their mum. She is, as I said, in the forest. Or on the moon?
Whether it's a festival, hiking or canoeing - the main thing is nature!Three questions for Nina Braun
Nina, you have 48 hours of free time. What would you definitely do with this time in NRW?
Nina: "I would go to a music festival. I went to Haldern Pop in August, for example.
But I also like to spend my free time in our garden. Preferably with family, friends and neighbours. We make a campfire, play games and eat."
Which place in NRW did you recently rediscover for yourself?
Nina: "The Rur from the water. I recently went on a canoe trip from Heimbach to Zerkall and was able to observe the beautiful surroundings from a completely different angle."
Your personal favourite place in NRW.
Nina: "There are several very different places. I like being in the Eifel National Park with the Kermeter, the Dreiborn plateau and the reservoirs. But I also like the High Fens, this unique upland moor. And on a beautiful summer evening, of course, the old town centre of Monschau."
