With this letter we would like to inform all cities and municipalities managed by the district forest administration about the effects of the drought and dry years 2018 and 2019 and the consequences of the storm trough “Sabine” from February 7th and 9th, 2020.
Nationwide, 2018 was both the warmest and driest year since weather records started. Overall, 2019 was too warm and too dry, with the result of a significant increase in damage from bark beetles. The weather last winter had no effect on the mortality of winter beetles, so we currently have to assume the highest starting population in the past 20 years.
In addition to the known damage to spruce, caused by the bark beetle types, printers and engravers, failures due to drought and insects have also occurred in the silver fir, which is considered to be robust. Locally, the beech tree, the main tree species in natural forest society, is also severely affected by drought damage. One example is the Schönberg.
In addition to the drought and beetle damage, the storm “Sabine” came in February, which has led to massive damage, especially in the Black Forest. In some high-altitude areas, more than twice the annual logging has been thrown. The stormwood reprocessing is in full swing everywhere, and has already been completed in the less affected areas. This was a tremendous effort for the private and municipal forestry operations in the main damage area. The storm wood quantities and, in addition, the corona-related reductions in production in the wood industry have dashed all hopes of a revival in the wood markets. This has a massive impact on all forest companies, even if they were not directly affected by storm damage. Freshwood chops had to be stopped, and logs from stormwood reprocessing are mainly used in wet storage areas. This requires expenses that are only offset by revenue at a significantly later point in time, which is currently not yet foreseeable.
Inferior timber is currently exported via containers to Asia. The proceeds just cover the processing costs. Nevertheless, for reasons of forest protection, it is necessary to use all marketing channels to bring residual wood suitable for breeding from bark beetles out of the forest
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