Sport in the city forest

You can do sport in many places. The classic sports usually take place in equally classic sports facilities. Sports grounds and stadiums, sports halls and gyms as well as swimming pools are provided by the local authorities to enable school and club sports. There are also special sports facilities for certain sports, such as shooting ranges, bowling alleys, tennis courts and halls and indoor riding arenas. There are also an increasing number of commercially operated fitness centers that offer non-club athletes the opportunity to keep fit in a variety of ways on a daily basis.

But the forest has also been a training and competition venue for many athletes for decades. Whereas 40 years ago, it was almost only performance-oriented long-distance runners who trained there, nowadays the forest is literally "populated" by recreational joggers. In recent years, the running boom has taken on forms previously thought impossible. City runs and even marathons have huge numbers of participants; the training required for these is mainly done in the forest. Fun runs and cross-country races are also held competitively in the forest.

But what do you need to bear in mind if you want to do sports in the forest? Do you need a permit, like for most other sports facilities? A look at the NRW State Forestry Act provides most of the answers. Section 2 (4) states that "organized events in the forest must be reported to the forestry authority in good time before the start of the activity". This is where things could get a little complicated for the citizens of Aachen. The responsible forestry authority is not the municipal forestry office in Aachen, but the forestry office in Eschweiler. The municipal forestry office in Aachen is therefore not a forestry authority in the sense of the law; it manages the forest areas of the city of Aachen and represents the interests of the city of Aachen as the owner of the forest. Theoretically, the notification of an organized event in the Aachen forest would therefore have to go to the Eschweiler Forestry Office, which would then have to enquire with the Aachen Municipal Forestry Office whether there were any concerns from the point of view of the forest owner before it could send a decision to the organizer. To make this easier for the citizen, there is an agreement between the Eschweiler Forestry Office and the Aachen Municipal Forestry Office that the notification of an organized event can go directly to the Municipal Forestry Office; the latter sends a copy of the approval and any conditions to the Eschweiler Forestry Office, which then satisfies the legal obligation to notify.

In practice, this means the following:
If you want to train in the Aachen forest, whether regularly or irregularly, this is not an event within the meaning of the aforementioned legal provision; at least not if it involves individual athletes or small, manageable groups. It is therefore not necessary to notify the municipal forestry office. However, if an official competition is to take place in the forest or organized training with larger numbers of participants and on fixed routes, this must be reported to the municipal forestry office. It does not matter whether competitive sport or recreational sport is taking place, but whether an event is taking place. This applies in principle to all types of sport. If the approval of the municipal forestry office is subject to conditions, an administrative fee of currently EUR 25.00 must be paid. It is very important that intended route barriers and signs are agreed with the forestry authority in advance. When training, runners, cyclists and mountain bikers should only ever use the normal forest paths. It should be a matter of course for athletes that not only fair play applies in the forest - consideration for other athletes, walkers and children - but also that the forest is used in an environmentally friendly manner, i.e. that plants and animals are not damaged, no waste is left behind and no noise is made.