A draft management plan for the bird sanctuary (SPA) 6533-471 "Nürnberger Reichswald" was prepared on behalf of the Bavarian State Institute for Forests and Forestry. The protected area has a size of approximately 38,000 ha and represents a large contiguous forest complex mainly consisting of pine forests with interspersed hardwood areas as well as conversion areas to structurally rich mixed and deciduous forests with clearings and forest edges. The Nürnberger Reichswald is a focal area for forest birds and has nationally significant occurrences of woodpeckers and other cavity-nesting birds, as well as many other rare species, such as the nightjar or woodlark.
ANUVA prepared the draft management plan. The main task was to record and evaluate the conservation status of the protected bird species. The bird species distributed over the whole area were mapped in representatively selected sample areas on 10 % of the total area. Species that colonize special habitats were recorded in suitable search areas. In addition to the actual species surveys, detailed structural and vegetation parameters were recorded. The data collected formed the basis for the status assessment as well as for the planning of measures to secure the conservation status in the long term.
Since the bird sanctuary covers a very large area, the surveys could not be carried out over the entire area. For the assessment of the conservation status as well as for the planning of measures, the results therefore had to be transferred to the entire protected area. The delimitation of the action areas was therefore carried out with the help of habitat modeling for individual species, such as the Middle Spotted Woodpecker and Tree Pipit, in which the occurrence of these species was extrapolated to the entire area, taking into account the habitat requirements and the existing structure and vegetation.