AOn the Bastei bridge everything seems to be as usual in August. People with cameras in front of their chests and cell phones in selfie mode get close to the biggest tourist attraction in Saxon Switzerland. Instead of the silence of the forest, above which the sandstone bridge stands, there is a confusion of languages from Polish, English, Hebrew, German. Only the nose cannot be fooled. There is a smell of charred.
Two forest fires broke out in the Saxon Switzerland National Park this year, one of which broke out in July just below the Bastei Bridge. Earlier men were observed smoking hookah there, although smoking is strictly prohibited, as in all German forests. The other fire came a week later from the Czech Republic like a cloud of embers and spread into the largest forest fire in the history of the national park.
Firefighters from all over Germany have been battling the flames for nearly four weeks. In the meantime they have withdrawn, but for foresters and experts the work goes on. We are faced with a fundamental decision: how much can man interfere with the nature that he actually wants to protect?
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Hanspeter Mayr of the Saxon Switzerland National Park knows the problems. A mixed forest, which is now growing back in much of the park, should actually be more resilient to crises than a forest where fir trees often grow in monocultures. But the drought of recent years has also hit Saxon Switzerland. 2018 was already a disastrous year, with a peak of 17 fires.
“Since the national park was founded in 1990, there have been five or six minor fires a year,” says Mayr. Local weather records show that summers are also getting drier on Elbe. In an average year, 750 liters of rain per square meter fell in the region. In 2018 it was only 540 liters, so far this year little more.
Saxon Switzerland has been a national park for 32 years, with Bohemian Switzerland directly adjacent to the Czech part. Anyone traveling from Dresden by train or steamboat will first see the cliffs that descend steeply to the Elbe, over which pine and birch trees defy arid conditions. This landscape, which is not very attractive for forestry, is one of the most original forests in Saxon Switzerland.
From the valley you can still see where the fire broke out under the bastion on the night of July 18th. The leaves of the birch trees are brown, the needles of some pines are still green on the valley side and brown on the slopes. “It remains to be seen which of the pines will survive,” says Mayr, who shows the fire scene. You can see from their trunks how the trees have tried to protect themselves with their thick bark. She stood up like a hedgehog in her spiked dress.
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Hanspeter Mayr has been spokesperson for the Saxon Switzerland National Park Administration since 2007
Source: dpa
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The further you get away from Elba, the more the forest changes. Birches and pines are replaced by beeches, oaks, firs and sycamores. And again and again spruce trees catch the eye. They stand over vast areas from log to log, dead towering bare and gray in the sky. They testify to the centuries in which man has cultivated the area. Fir trees provide fast wood, suitable for building and burning.
In the first 30 years since the founding of the national park, it was then “rebuilt”. Until 2020, foresters in the national park scoured the fir forests and planted trees such as silver fir, which are part of the natural mixed forest here. However, the conversion was less effective than expected. Visitors annoyed by the lumber reapers, trucks loaded the country roads, and when the thirsty firs were cut down, the remaining trees regrown so quickly that the canopy closed before new plantations had a chance.
The problem with dead wood
“We didn’t make it,” says Mayr, the park’s public relations manager since 2007. Instead, the bark beetle took control of spruce forests and halved their numbers from 50% in the drought year. of 2018 to 25% today. Eventually, the foresters focused their efforts on preventing insects from leaping into private forests. Many of the dead trees remained standing. Unlike the forest, where wood is withdrawn from the ecosystem, its decomposition should provide new nutrients to other plants. This is also good for biodiversity. Particularly rare beetles and fungi settle here, which cannot find enough dead wood in the forest.
Deadwood, however, provides fuel, even for that great fire in the rear of Saxon Switzerland, which was only extinguished last week. When the wind blew the fire from Bohemia, the treetops caught fire first. From there, the flames made their way downwards, where the biggest problem arose in the dried up layer of the topsoil. This layer is particularly thick in the national park, due to dead wood, but also because fallen needles and leaves collect in the many crevices in the rock.
The fire spread across the forest floor like a peat fire. A hidden fire like this is difficult to detect. Ever since the firefighters left, the foresters have been digging the ground to find the embers. “From a nature conservation perspective, forest fires could be seen as a natural occurrence,” says Mayr. There are many protected birds here, such as the black stork, but hopefully they would have brought themselves and their young to safety. They still want to get rid of the spruces, healthy pines can protect themselves with their thick bark, and the ash provides minerals for the new plants.
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Four years later, the holes in the ground still show where people were looking for embers in the forest floor
Source: Sonja Stössel
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However, the frequency and extent of forest fires worry the geographer. In any case, the fires must be fought as there are settlements and private forests nearby that must be protected. From a security perspective, according to Mayr, there is no alternative to tedious cancellation.
Two questions arise for the future: How can fires be better prevented and combated? And should man try to help nature? Prime Minister of Saxony Michael Kretschmer (CDU) is in favor of planting new deciduous trees. If he got his way, the deadwood should be out of the forest. Fire doors are also up for debate. Counterattacks the Green-led Ministry of the Environment, referring to the EU rules for national parks. On Tuesday, the cabinet decided on scientific studies to clarify the issues. The population, however, became one Raising funds for reforestation has been launched and over 31,000 euros have already been raised. Saxon Switzerland is very important to Saxony, says Mayr. It is a piece of home and an affair of the heart.
“More urgently, the Alpine Rescue needs better equipment”
The discussion of new plantations is confusing the national park. Planted trees often have a hard time, Mayr points out. Sometimes the roots bent during planting. The tree will not get rid of damage throughout its life. And with the arid conditions of the rock, a “spoiled” greenhouse birch has a small chance of survival. “More urgently, the mountain rescue service needs better equipment, such as fireproof safety ropes,” says Mayr. A lot of material broke during the weeks of use in July and August.
Mayr hopes that nature can fix it on its own. The first ferns and first grasses are already sprouting on the newly cleared spot and some birch trees are sprouting again. He also shows a fire in which nearly 1.5 hectares of so-called coral reef vegetation was destroyed in 2018, namely birch, pine, fern, heather and blueberry. Today huge ferns grow rampant under the burnt trunks, young birches, poplars and pines sprout. Some deciduous trees have already reached 2.40 meters, the pines measure about ten centimeters. It remains to be seen whether the young trees will develop as desired even with frequent droughts. Ferns and blueberries have dried up in places.
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Burnt trees above, lush green below: nature returns to the Bastei rock
Source: Sonja Stössel
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Here’s what the area looked like immediately after the fire.
Source: M. Hansel
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The first pines are also growing back
Source: Sonja Stössel
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For the moment, the national park administration is focusing on prevention. It worked well after 2018, for example with night or general bans on entering the forest. The national park attributes most of the forest fires to tourists and so-called puppeteers who spend the night outdoors in Saxon Switzerland. This is allowed for climbers at designated locations, but too often tourists use gas cookers or light fires without permission.
At the bastion, the new “No smoking” signs are now emblazoned, as large as stop signs. The red circle with the crossed-out cigarette is understandable in any language.
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