If you come to enjoy the wood the following days, please stay on the official paths. If what seems a path, is not on the hiking map, it is not a path at all. It is one of the many ‘self-made’ paths made by careless visitors over the last 4 weeks. On many places where there were bluebells a month ago, there is only a bare patch now. Such a pity! The magnificent natural phenomenon of spring wildflowers forming a flower carpet in the Hallerbos is fragile and protected vegetation. It is strictly forbidden to go off the official paths, it is an offence. Anything between the flowers towards a tree stump or a fallen tree is NOT an official path. Bluebells do not tolerate trampling. If people step on a place in the wood, the earth gets dense and hard and no bluebells can grow there anymore.
Right now, their leaves are forming a new flower bulb for next year. By trampling them, this tiny flower bulb is destroyed and there will not be a flower, only a bare patch next year. The same goes when stepping on dry beech or oak leaves between the flowers. The small root that comes from the hyacinth’s seed will not be able to penetrate the soil there, and there will be no new flower there in the future. This is how the bare patches along the paths get bigger every year and some consider them paths (but they are not official paths at all). Do you want to enjoy this beautiful forest and protect it? Then always stay on the official paths and never step on places where there are dry tree leaves, do not trample on the bluebells and their leaves. Thank you!