Germany invented “scientific” forestry. But a huge dieback triggered by climate change has ignited a fierce debate over how the nation should manage its trees. InternationalDayOfForests
Last summer, Friederike and Jörg von Beyme stood on a bramble-covered, Sun-blasted slope outside this small town in eastern Germany. Just 4 years ago, the hillside, part of a nearly 500-hectare forest the couple bought in 2002, was green and shady, covered in tall, neatly arranged Norway spruce trees the couple planned to cut and sell.
Everyone agrees that new approaches are needed, but no one, it seems, can agree on what those should be. Some advocates want Germany’s government and forest industry to stop promoting the widespread planting of commercially valuable trees such as Norway spruces, and instead encourage landowners to allow forests to regenerate on their own.
But many of those forests are far from natural. Norway spruce alone, for example, accounts for one-quarter of the trees—and more than half the timber harvest. The shallow-rooted species naturally grows in high latitudes or on cold mountainsides. But in Germany, as well as in the Czech Republic, Austria, and elsewhere, foresters planted it throughout low-lying and far warmer regions.
The consensus breaks down, however, when it comes to solutions. For some, the dieback offers a rare chance to dramatically shift forest policy toward a more hands-off approach. Allowing devastated forests to naturally regrow, the thinking goes, could revitalize ecosystems and start to reverse centuries of biodiversity decline.
Just a few years ago, the plot—part of a forest owned by the small town of Treuenbrietzen—was covered by Scotch pines, a common plantation species in regions with sandy soils. In the hot, dry summer of 2018, however, fires torched some 400 hectares of the pine forest, closing highways and forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes; smoke even reached Berlin. In the past, such large fires were almost unheard of in mild Central Europe.
In Harz National Park, which sits in mountains straddling the former border of East and West Germany, ecologist Gunter Karste with the Harz National Park Authority is also bucking tradition. Here, waves of bark beetles have killed more than 10,000 hectares of spruce stands. But research published by Karste and colleagues persuaded park managers to let the dead snags stand and hold off on replanting.
Gärtner believes the stand indicates foresters would do well by planting diverse mixes of commercially valuable species, increasing the likelihood that at least some will survive to harvest age in a changing climate. The next step is largely up to the 2 million or so private landowners—individuals, families, and firms—who own about half the country’s forests, and the cities and states that own most of the rest. And whereas environmentalists want more forests managed primarily for ecological values rather than timber, most forest owners, private or public, aim to make money from logging.
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