Progress on the steering concept for the Munich Isartrails. The Munich section of the German Alpine Club has been working on the previously neglected project since April 2025. It was recently announced that significant milestones have been reached: 2026 is to be the year of realisation. The plan now looks like this.
Firstly, a brief review: The Isar floodplains on the outskirts of Munich have been a highly frequented recreational area for 1.5 inhabitants for many years, but are also a designated Natura 2000 site. Conflicts of interest have been part of the programme for many years. Nevertheless, landowners, nature conservation authorities, mountain bike representatives, the Alpine Association, the city and the district administration were able to reach a compromise in 2017 in the form of a steering concept.
However, this concept has never been implemented by the responsible district office. One of the reasons for this is that the question of bans could not be clarified. In other words, do you give mountain bikers access to certain trails and then ban them from all other trails?
Old concept tackled anew
In April 2025, this concept from 2017 was taken out of the drawer again and handed over to the Alpenverein München & Oberland. It is now to resume and implement the project on the basis of the old concept. Problem: The mapping of the old concept was no longer correct, and new discussions need to be held with all landowners and stakeholders. Today, Bea Draese, the project manager of the Isar concept, announced: "We have recently been able to make many important decisions and conclude agreements. So it's clear - 2026 will be the year of implementation."
Current status now: The contracts between the project partners, the City of Munich, the District of Munich and the Munich section of the German Alpine Club, have been signed and the funding from the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment has been finalised. The Munich section of the German Alpine Club is taking over the sponsorship of the Isar trails nature conservation project and thus the planning, construction and maintenance of the Isar trails. The entire project should be completed by 2032.
These are the next steps
Three planning offices have now completely revised the route plan (between Munich and Schäflarn) of the steering concept, which was elaborately drawn up in 2017, and reviewed it with regard to species protection and FFH compatibility. The nature conservation review is still pending, but should be completed by the end of January 2026 at the latest.
The decisive factor is now the authorisation of the landowners in the Isar valley. The municipalities of Pullach, Baierbrunn, Schäftlarn, Grünwald and Straßlach-Dingharting have already agreed to the concept.
The invitation to tender for the construction work is scheduled for the second quarter of 2026. A trail construction company is to be hired, which will probably break ground in autumn 2026. Overall, the construction phase (on both sides of the Isar between Munich and Schäflarn) is expected to take two years. "However, renewed funding from the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment is essential for this," says project manager Bea Draese. "Everyone involved is counting on the promise of State Minister Thorsten Glauber to also financially support the second step in the realisation of the Isartrail project."
What exactly do the planned Isar routes for mountain bikers look like?
- Between Munich and Schäftlarn, signposted routes for mountain bikers are to be created on both sides of the Isar. Total route length: 78 kilometres - of which 28 kilometres are trails.
- A professional trail construction company will be hired via a public tender to design and realise a trail concept. However, it is already clear that the trails will have a minimum width so that it is possible to avoid oncoming traffic.
- To achieve this, some of the trails in the extensive network of paths along the Isar are to be dismantled. Especially where the paths cut through valuable habitats for plants and animals.
- To avoid soil damage, wet spots and streams are to be bridged by gravel or bridge elements. Crossing trees will be removed.
- There should be no bans, but closures due to the risk of landslides are potentially possible. Paths in nature-sensitive areas will be renaturalised and closed, but for bikers and hikers alike. The constitutional right of free access will therefore continue to exist.
What happens after the construction phase?
Once the construction work and signposting is expected to be completed by the end of 2028, work will continue until 2032 with the maintenance of the route network, the installation of trail control technology (monitoring) and the optimisation of the route concept
Since 20 November, all current and new developments can be viewed on the new homepage isartrails-muenchen.de read more.
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
