Most of the trees in Thuringia’s forests show symptoms of disease, and around 77,000 hectares are already bare. Hopes for improvement after a wet year in 2021 have not been fulfilled for most tree species.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – The situation in the Thuringian forests remains dramatic. Only 18 percent of the trees in heavily forested Thuringia are still fully healthy, according to the forest condition report presented by Forest Minister Susanna Karawanskij (left) in Erfurt on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, after the rainy year 2021, the hope for further relaxation in the forest was not fulfilled,” said the minister. “Every second tree has a significantly reduced vitality.”
Months without precipitation and with high temperatures would have had a negative effect this year. Satellite images would show that around 77,000 hectares are already bare because trees have died due to drought, storms or bark beetle infestation. According to the minister, Central Germany is one of the driest regions in Germany. An increase in the bare areas can currently be observed, especially in the south of Thuringia – the forest office areas of Schleiz, Rudolstadt-Saalfeld or Sonneberg were mentioned.
Thuringia relies on reforestation, for which eleven million euros will be made available annually from the state treasury up to 2036, said Karawanskij. Hundreds of thousands of trees are planted every year, and most of the seed comes from Thuringia’s forest tree nursery. “However, sustainable forest rescue will only succeed with consistent climate protection.”
The examination of the most important tree species, in which the crowns in particular were examined by experts in the summer, produced a differentiated picture. After that, most of the oaks and beeches are still diseased, but the proportion of severely damaged trees of these two species has decreased. For oak by ten percentage points to 63 percent, for pine by twelve percentage points to 62 percent. Older trees have also recovered somewhat, even if they continue to suffer from drought stress.
In the case of the spruce, the most common tree species in Thuringia, around a third of the trees showed clear or slight damage or were healthy. This roughly corresponds to the previous year’s value. In the case of beeches – Thuringia has a large contiguous beech forest area in the Hainich National Park – almost every third tree shows drought damage with small leaves. Only nine percent of the beeches are healthy, 33 percent are slightly damaged.
