With the support of an external planning office and in close cooperation with the City of Bonn's Office for the Environment and Urban Greenery, the Rhine-Sieg-Erft Regional Forestry Office and the Eifel Association, the Rhineland Nature Park has developed and implemented a new signposting system for Bonn's Kottenforst over the past few months. The uniform and clear signage makes it easier for hikers to find their way around the Kottenforst and the surrounding area. At the same time, it serves to guide people in a targeted manner in the interests of nature conservation, as areas that are particularly worthy of protection were excluded from the planning.

The system includes five new hiking routes called the Kottenforst-Runde, Godesburg-Runde, Melbtal-Runde, Katzenlochbachtal-Runde and Röttgen-Runde. The routes are between nine and sixteen kilometers long and start at hiking parking lots and public transport stops.

The hiking trail guidance system was implemented exclusively using the existing hiking trail network; no new trails were created for this purpose. The signposting is based on the quality and award-winning hiking trails that are common in many tourist regions. For this purpose, main signposts with arrows to short, medium and long-distance destinations as well as marker posts with directions were installed. Numerous trail plaques, which were installed with the support of the Bonn chapter of the Eifelverein, complement the markings along the routes. 

An overview of the new routes is provided by twelve new hiking map boards at hiking parking lots in Bonn. They provide an overview of the entire area and are installed at various central locations. A large number of these hiking map boards are replacing older nature park boards. 

The first of these hiking boards has now been unveiled by Mayor Dr. Ursula Sautter and the Chairman of the Association Assembly of the Rhineland Nature Park Association, Jürgen Wehlus, at the nature park center “Haus der Natur” on the Waldau. The event took place in the presence of representatives of the Bonn Eifel Association, the City of Bonn's Office for the Environment and Urban Greenery and Bonn's city forester Julia Johnson.

Mayor Dr. Sautter emphasized the importance of the new signage system for local recreation and tourism and praised the cooperation with the Rhineland Nature Park: “I am delighted that the city of Bonn has a strong partner at its side in the Rhineland Nature Park, which has developed an excellent offer for the local recreation of our Bonn citizens with the new signage system.” Jürgen Wehlus explained that the costs of around 34,000 euros were financed by the special-purpose association's own funds and subsidies from the Ministry of the Environment and thanked everyone involved for their help with the implementation: “There are many interests to consider in a project like this. Thanks to the good cooperation with the nature conservation authority, we have succeeded in reconciling the interests of nature conservation and local recreation.”

The map sheet on the new hiking boards covers almost the entire southern part of the Rhineland Nature Park from Rheinbach to Bonn. From next week, it will also be available as a leisure and hiking map at the hiker-friendly scale of 1:27,500. The back of the map contains a brief description of the new routes and tips on how to behave in nature.

The map entitled “Bonn, Rheinbach and the Kottenforst” is available for a nominal charge of one euro and can be collected from the Haus der Natur, the Bonn Information Office and the Himmeroder Hof Nature Park Center in Rheinbach or ordered for postage and delivery charges from the Nature Park's online store at   www.naturpark-rheinland.de/shop (opens in a new tab).