HWN 116 Engagement Island locked!

Sta­te forestry fel­led dan­ge­rous trees in the Oker valley 

Federal highway 498 between Waldhaus and Romkerhalle and Verlobungsinsel fully closed from August 5 to 7

(Claus­thal-Zel­ler­feld) The Lower Sax­o­ny Forestry Office in Claus­thal is remo­ving trees in the Oker Val­ley for traf­fic safe­ty reasons. For this pur­po­se, a sec­tion of the fede­ral road 498 will be ful­ly clo­sed from August 5 to 7, 2025. The enga­ge­ment island loca­ted in the Oker stream bed with the Har­zer Wan­der­na­del stam­ping sta­ti­on will also be inac­ces­si­ble. The sec­tion of the rou­te from the Oker bus loop (Käs­tes­tra­ße junc­tion near Wald­haus) to the Rom­ker­hall water­fall is affec­ted by the felling work. Fol­lo­wing bark beet­le infe­sta­ti­on and cli­ma­te dama­ge, dead spruce trees must be remo­ved from the dan­ger zone of the road. 

„During the road safe­ty work, forestry machi­nes can only ope­ra­te from the road to remo­ve the tall spruce trees bet­ween the main road and the Oker stream. The stream bed offers no pos­si­bi­li­ty of rea­ching the dan­ge­rous trees,“ says dis­trict fores­ter Dani­el Göbel, explai­ning the safe­ty mea­su­re. The dis­trict fores­ter is reli­e­ved about the full clo­sure of the main road orde­red by the dis­trict of Gos­lar. „This allows us to defu­se the threa­tening situa­ti­on in the wild and roman­tic Oker val­ley with spe­cial tech­no­lo­gy. Forestry com­pa­nies from the regi­on are felling the dying spruce trees along the B 498 and pul­ling the tree trunks out of the rocky bank area. 

For safe­ty reasons, the popu­lar enga­ge­ment island with the stam­ping sta­ti­on may not be ente­red,“ points out Dani­el Göbel. The E 6 hiking trail is still accessible. 

Oker valley restricted area – without the state forests, the tourist highlight would be off-limits to visitors

For the fourth year in a row, the Lower Sax­o­ny Sta­te Forests are secu­ring one of the main access rou­tes into the Upper Harz and kee­ping the cour­se of the river open for water sports enthu­si­asts and clim­bers from fal­ling trees and poten­ti­al floa­ting debris.

„The Claus­thal Forestry Office is inves­t­ing in tou­rism infra­struc­tu­re, hiking and cano­e­ing as well as flood pro­tec­tion. If we lea­ve the dead spruce trees in the stream bed, the Oker val­ley, which is popu­lar with holi­day­makers, water sports enthu­si­asts and clim­bers, would no lon­ger be acces­si­ble,“ adds dis­trict fores­ter Dani­el Göbel. 

Traf­fic will be diver­ted in Oker via Bad Harz­burg and Alten­au as well as via Gos­lar and Claus­thal-Zel­ler­feld. The par­king lot at the Wald­haus can be rea­ched from Oker and access to the Rom­ker­hall water­fall is free from the direc­tion of the Oker dam.