On 20 September 1978, the Ernstberg was designated by the district council at Trier as a nature reserve. Its conservation aim is the preservation of the Early Pleistocene stratovolcano with its distinctive ring-shaped arrangement of its pyroclastic rock and basalt layers (Einlagerungen) (nepheline-leutzitite). In addition the aim is to preserve the colony of Perennial Honesty (Lunaria rediviva).