Naturnationalpark Gribskov in North Zealand opened on Sunday, September 13, 2026, making it Denmark’s second nature national park.
The new park is intended to leave nature largely to itself. Castrated bulls and red deer will graze freely behind fencing all year, DR reports. The stated purpose is more wild nature and greater biodiversity in Denmark.
According to the Danish Nature Agency, Naturstyrelsen, the inauguration event ran from 10:00 to 13:00. It was held at Frederiksværksvej 135 in 3230 Græsted, on the edge of the forest area.
Gribskov lies in North Zealand and is one of Denmark’s largest forest areas. The opening makes it the country’s second nature national park, per DR’s reporting. The concept places large grazing animals inside fenced areas to keep the landscape open and varied.
Protests from the start
DR notes that the nature national parks have met citizen protests and demonstrations from the beginning. The opposition has followed the projects since they were first announced. The Gribskov site has been among the areas at the center of that debate.
The groundwork for the park began several years ago. Magnus Heunicke, then minister for the environment and minister for gender equality, took the first ceremonial dig in Gribskov in 2024. He did so from a mini excavator, as documented in photographs from the event.
Fencing has been a recurring point of friction around the project. Earlier reporting covered how damage to the Gribskov fence raised safety concerns for people and animals in the area. The enclosure is central to the grazing model the park is built on.
The park is set inside a landscape with a long royal history. Gribskov forest has been used for hunting and forestry for centuries. It sits close to Esrum Lake and the towns of Græsted and Helsinge.
To mark the opening, DR published an online quiz with nine questions about the nature national parks. One question asks what the minister was actually doing in the mini excavator in 2024. The quiz is hosted on an external platform and linked from DR’s article.
Naturstyrelsen manages the site and publishes practical information about access, grazing animals and gates on its own pages. The agency is the state authority responsible for Denmark’s nature national parks. Gribskov now joins the first park in that program.
DR’s article was published on the morning of the opening and written by journalist Thomas Prakash. It appeared in the outlet’s domestic news section.
