Record temperatures, drought and pests have hit the forest hard in recent years. With regard to the water supply for trees, a quick all-clear is hardly in sight.
Freiburg (dpa/lsw) – According to a Freiburg forestry expert, the winter has not yet been able to compensate for the lack of water in the forest soil. “We have a fairly average winter in terms of moisture supply,” said Christoph Hartebrodt, department head at the Forestry Research and Testing Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA) in Freiburg. There are still deficits, especially in the deeper soil layers: “The winter was definitely not so wet that the deficits are all balanced.”
Record temperatures and drought in previous summers had made things difficult for the forest in the southwest. The very hot and dry years 2018 to 2020 and the hot summer of 2022 caused forest damage to increase significantly, as can be seen from the current forest report for the country. Pests such as the bark beetle are also a cause for concern. Only in 2021 was there a breather with sufficient rainfall.
“We’re not starting with a huge problem,” summarized Hartebrodt before the start of the warmer seasons. “Recovery of deeper soil water storage hasn’t happened since 2018,” he added, but with regard to the water in the soils that can be used by plants.
According to the forest report, almost half of the forest area in Baden-Württemberg (46 percent) is significantly damaged. When surveying the state of the forest, the thinning of the crown, i.e. the loss of leaves or needles, is recorded as a measure of the state of health of the trees. For this purpose, more than 7000 trees were examined in July and August, including beech, ash and sycamore maple, spruce, pine, fir and Douglas fir.
