Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre
General information about the Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre
The Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre at Adelsbergstraße 192 is a base for practical nature conservation work and nature-based education. It is open every Wednesday from 1 to 5 pm.
The nature conservation centre not only stores and maintains technology, equipment and materials, and builds and repairs conservation area signs, barriers and nesting boxes in the workshops, but also carries out the special maintenance of over 50 conservation areas and species protection measures throughout the city.
This is carried out by a municipal nature conservation officer and his staff as well as participants in the FÖJ and BFD voluntary service programmes. However, without the dedicated cooperation and help of many volunteers, the nature conservation tasks would be impossible to accomplish.
The Chemnitz nature conservation centre as a base for nature-based education
Every year, the Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre organises a variety of environmental and nature education events, conferences and activities.
For example, the "Max Meise" project - nest box building for young and old - has been established since spring 2000. Here, children, young people, parents and grandparents can build their own nesting boxes for birds under the expert guidance of bird conservationists and nature conservation volunteers. Since 2013, the Environment Agency has been supported by the Saxon Ornithologists' Association (VSO). The experts provide information on many details about bird protection in the home, yard and garden and answer questions.
The Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre has also been home to the "Young Nature Guards" (JuNa) since 2021, which also includes the Chemnitz NATUREntdecker working group. The Chemnitz Nature Conservation Station is available to interested parties, day-care centres and schools as a venue for environmental education activities. The contact person for the educational programmes is the JuNa project coordinator, Benjamin Franke.
Since 2013, there has also been a "Journey of Discovery through the Nature Conservation Centre", which invites children's groups of up to 12 children aged 3 to 8 to explore the grounds and buildings under the guidance of a trained nature conservation assistant.
From late autumn to spring, the nature conservation authority invites visitors to specialist lectures and information events for the nature conservation service and interested members of the public.
Location
Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre
Adelsbergstraße 192
09127 Chemnitz
Events
The City of Chemnitz, Lower Nature Conservation Authority, organises excursions and events on the subject of nature conservation with various partners. more
By the way ...
The Chemnitz Nature Conservation Station is a centre for practical nature conservation, a model object for species protection on buildings and regenerative energies as well as a sponsor and deployment site for:- the voluntary nature conservation service
- the Voluntary Ecological Year (FÖJ)
- the Federal Voluntary Service (BFD)
- AG NATUREntdecker Chemnitz
- Young Nature Guards Chemnitz
- Environmental education
- Nature and adventure education
The Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre as a base for the voluntary nature conservation service
The Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre serves as a base for nature conservation work by volunteers. This also includes the "Pilfreunde Chemnitz" e. V. association .
The association has been organising volunteer identification evenings since 2002, where mushrooms brought along are examined.
The Chemnitz nature conservation centre as a model for species protection
As part of the refurbishment of the Chemnitz nature conservation centre, which lasted from 1995 to 1998, over 100 new nesting opportunities and roosts were created, e.g. for bats, house sparrows, jackdaws, kestrels, swifts and hornets.
Since then, the various construction methods have not only served as a model and demonstration object for homeowners, builders and interested citizens, but are also regularly used by many bird species for breeding.
In 2002, the nature conservation centre received an award from the Free State of Saxony for bat protection.
The Chemnitz nature conservation centre as a model for renewable energies
Even in the utilisation concept of 20 January 1995, it was the declared aim to take into account the concerns of "ecological building". The conscious utilisation of old building fabric, the reuse of building materials, soil unsealing, rainwater utilisation and much more were and are our principles in communal nature conservation.
In 1997, a solar heating system for domestic hot water was installed on the roof of the Chemnitz nature conservation centre. The system was the first of its kind on a municipal building in the city of Chemnitz. In terms of environmental policy, we now refer to this as "sustainability".
In addition to solar thermal energy (1997/2012) and photovoltaics (2009), the heating system has also been operated ecologically and with renewable fuels since 2012 using hedge and tree cuttings from nature conservation work.
With this combination of information services, activities for nature conservation and environmental protection as well as nature-oriented construction measures, the nature conservation centre is an exemplary project for how nature conservation and climate protection can be carried out within the administration. The nature conservation centre thus serves as an interdisciplinary ecological showpiece and uses practical examples to demonstrate how nature conservation, climate protection and sustainability belong together.
History of the Chemnitz Nature Conservation Centre
Since 1995, the environmental department of the city of Chemnitz has maintained a nature conservation centre in the district of Gablenz. There used to be a farm on this site. The house was built in 1922 as a residential and stable building. In the 1980s until after the political change, the buildings were used by craftsmen and technicians from the municipal clinics.
In 1990, the new environmental administration and nature conservation authority were established on the basis of the Federal Nature Conservation Act. In addition to the administrative authorities, a department for practical nature conservation was set up in Chemnitz to develop the protected areas and protect species. In September 1990, ten community service volunteers (Zivis) began their service in municipal nature conservation and over a hundred followed by 2010.
The accommodation for the equipment, the material store and the work accommodation for the civilian service volunteers were distributed across up to seven locations in the city. Since 1995, practical nature conservation equipment and staff have been concentrated at the nature conservation centre, saving time, travel and costs. By 1998, the centre had been refurbished as a base for practical nature conservation and a project was set up as a "supra-regional model object for the protection of animal species living in buildings", partly with project funding from the Free State of Saxony.
After several thousand hours of work and a lot of voluntary labour, a new and lovingly designed information point was created for a focal point of nature conservation in the town.