Amerong Forest

Amerongse Bos is a 94-hectare nature reserve near Amerongen in the province of Utrecht that has been owned by Het Utrechts Landschap since 1977. It is part of the larger Amerongsche Bosch. Another part of the Amerongsche Bosch belongs to Boswachterij Amerongse Berg of Staatsbosbeheer. With 69.2 meters above sea level, the Amerongse Berg is the highest point in the area, and in the province of Utrecht. The nature reserve is one of the oldest forests on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. The avenue structure with beech trees dates from the eighteenth century and some Scots pines were planted during that time. It was commissioned by the lords of Amerongen Castle to be built on heathlands that had arisen after an earlier forest had disappeared in the Middle Ages. On the edge of the forest are former tobacco fields.

The Amerongsche Bosch is located on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug that was formed in the Saalien: the penultimate ice age. A glacier from Scandinavia pushed soil forward, forming a moraine. The glacier's meltwater washed gravelly sand into lower areas. These deposits lie as fan-shaped slopes between Rhenen and Leersum. In the last ice age, the Weichselien, there was no glacier here, but there was permafrost. As a result, the rainwater was not absorbed into the soil but formed streams. Because these cut into the subsurface, snowmelt water valleys were created. In the western part of the area, such a valley is clearly recognizable.

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