Deisterfreunde prepare to dismantle trail

The Deisterfreunde association will no longer receive a new permit for its three trails from the Hanover region's environmental authority. The details of the affair can be found in Part 1 of this report. 

The environmental department is demanding compensation from the mountain bikers for trail extensions - actually restorations and updates - that they carried out years ago. Although the mountain bikers do not accept the authority's reasoning, they have proposed reforestation measures as compensation. However, Jens Palandt, head of the environmental department, describes these as "technically unsuitable". He invites the Deister friends to look for solutions together with him.

However, the mistrust on the part of the organized mountain bikers is great. Mark Wolf explains: "Mr. Palandt often talks to others about being in dialogue with us or wanting to come. However, he doesn't want to listen to our arguments and there are no offers of honest dialog."

Philipp Westphal, spokesperson for the Environmental Agency, counters that Jens Palandt has twice offered to present the legal basis and answer questions, for example at a general meeting of the Deisterfreunde. "The offer was not accepted," concludes Westphal.

Wolf and his fellow club members counter that they would be willing to continue working together if they were given a long-term perspective. In other words, they are not prepared to continue operating a makeshift arrangement that can be terminated by the authorities at any time.

The fact that the Deisterfreunde are no longer particularly willing to talk also has to do with the fact that they are preparing for the end of the legal trail offering in the region and their club activities. "We will need every euro of our association's assets to dismantle the trails," explains Wolf, pointing out that the board members would be liable with their private assets if the association were to become insolvent due to the claims.

The NDR also dedicated a report to the situation on the Deister. No, the arrow in the middle of the image is unfortunately not active.

Happy end or a mess on the Deister?

The environment department has announced that there will also be an official nature-friendly mountain bike offer in 2026. The authority is already working on what this will look like. In fact, there are various working groups on the future of the Deister, including one entitled "Zoning", which is also looking at new "downhill trails". Of course, this does not mean downhill racing trails, but built single trails suitable for mass sports like the existing ones.

The Deister friends told Ride that they were not invited to the important meetings, such as the "Zoning" round table. Instead, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club ADFC takes part.

The Deisterfreunde are invited to all meetings, but Westphal also takes a different position on this issue. However, the "zoning concept" working group had started without the mountain bikers being represented because property and nature conservation aspects had to be clarified first. The mountain bikers would be included in the next step, according to the spokesperson for the Environment Agency.

It is clear that the Deisterfreunde were not involved, but a representative of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (ADFC) was. The ADFC represents the interests of cyclists in Germany and claims to have over 230,000 members nationwide. It is primarily involved in everyday cycling, as well as offering cycling tours. The ADFC has not yet appeared as a specialist organization for mountain bike infrastructure.

Who represents the mountain bikers?

Ride was able to contact Christian Stahl, who took part in the zoning meetings as a representative of the ADFC. He emphasizes that the ADFC is not the representative of mountain bikers in the Hanover region. He is also surprised that the Deister friends are not invited to the meetings.

Stahl writes that the Lower Saxony State Forests have presented some areas that could be made available for "downhill trails". Whether these are suitable should be clarified during an inspection. Stahl described it as "funny" that no representatives of downhill bikers were invited. The inspection did not take place due to time constraints.

In the meantime, the Hanover region has chosen the mountain bike club Team Springe to represent the bike community. According to its website, the club has around 30 members who mainly ride tours and take part in cross-country races. Ride has tried to obtain a statement from Team Springe, named after the town of Springe am Deister. The club has not yet responded.

"Divide and rule", comments Mark Wolf, apparently the aim is to exclude the Deisterfreunde and establish another group to represent the mountain bike community. The authorities took the position that the Deisterfreunde were welcome and had been invited, but had decided not to participate.

Hannover wants to extend the temporary arrangement

In December, the Hannover region declared that it also wanted to have legal trails on the Deister in 2026. The aim is to have natural single trails outside of nature reserves, because such trails cannot be permanently approved there - something that Deister friends have been fighting for years.

In the medium term, the Hanover region even wants to create a trail park, according to its announcement at the beginning of September. However, as neither new trails nor a trail park could be realized by the end of 2025, the authorities are thinking of extending the special permit for the Deisterfreunde trails.

This is not a happy ending, but an extension of the messed-up situation on Hanover's local mountain. According to the German average, there are 50,000 people in the city alone who ride mountain bikes regularly. According to Mark Wolf, there are even half a million bikers who regularly ride the Deister. The three Deisterfreunde trails are not enough for them. Nevertheless, the region has decided to take action first against the only offer that exists on the Deister.