As early as the 1920s individual nature lovers, including the "Emperor Pope", Franz Nieberl, called for greater protection of the unique natural region of the Kaiser. The primary aim of this protection was to prevent over development of the Kaiser Mountains by cable cars and roads. In those days such ideas were unsuccessful. In 1961, following a referendum, it was decided to establish a
nature reserve, which was officially opened on 19 April 1963. The reserve, which covered all the peaks of the Wilder and Zahmer Kaiser, has an area of and lies within the territories of the municipalities of Kufstein, St. Johann in Tirol,
Ebbs,
Ellmau,
Going,
Kirchdorf in Tirol,
Scheffau and
Walchsee. The height of the nature reserve's terrain ranges from 480 m up to 2344 m at the summit of the Ellmauer Halt. The only man-made lift in the protected area is the chair lift to the Brentenjoch saddle. Other lift projects were not realized because of the nature reserve. For a long time, the construction of a road into the Kaisertal valley was hotly contested as it was the only inhabited valley in Austria without road access. The Kaisertal road, which now runs from Ebbs through the Anna Tunnel (813 m long) into the Kaisertal, was opened on 31 May 2008. It was built by the parish of Ebbs as a private road for use only by a very narrow group of beneficiaries: residents, farmers, authorities and organisations with safety functions. The
flora and
fauna of the nature reserve is very rich. In the Kaiser Mountains there are about 940 different flowering plants, 38 different species of
fern and over 400 different
mosses. The colonies of
fungi and
lichen are very rich, with 100 and 236 different
species respectively being represented. The forest region comprises mainly mixed forest with
beech,
fir and
spruce. In the
submontane area there are also
ash and
sycamore maple, and, in sunny areas,
alder. Hay meadows, poor grassland and pastures are typical of the
alpine meadows. In the
subalpine region we find the typical
dwarf shrub types such as
mountain pine and
alpenrose, and the rare
dwarf alpenrose.
Alpine polsterrasen ("cushion grasslands") are found all the way up to the summit areas. There are various
wetlands also stocked with typical plants. As a product of
ice age processes the Kaiser is also home to a number of rare, partly endemic invertebrates, such as
Allobobophora smaragdina (a yellow-green
earthworm), a
door snail, and a number of
spiders and
butterflies. Typical
vertebrates are the
alpine and
fire salamanders,
smooth snake,
viper (unusual color variants),
edible dormouse,
hazel dormouse and
bank vole. In higher regions there are
chamois,
stoat,
snow vole and
mountain hare. Typical
birds are
wood warbler, the
red-breasted flycatcher (for
North Tyrol endemic),
alpine chough,
raven,
crag martin,
alpine willow tit,
lesser redpoll (
Carduelis linaria rufescens),
alpine accentor,
alpine wallcreeper and
black grouse -
capercaillie and
rock ptarmigan.
Raptors occurring in the Kaiser are the
northern goshawk,
Eurasian sparrowhawk,
golden eagle,
tawny owl,
pygmy owl and
Tengmalm's owl. == Geology and hydrology ==