The demand for wood is still enormous.
WBV boss Killer still says: “The sawmills are well looked after.” However, he is worried about the reforestation with spruce.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - The bad news in spring gave the impression that every house builder would be well advised to store their wood like gold.
Beams and boards were becoming scarce and scarce in this country, it was said, and therefore more and more expensive.
The US and China, which were apparently willing to pay more than sawmills and carpentry shops in Germany, were named as price drivers - even for inferior spruce wood.
In municipalities that have been relying more on timber construction for years, such as the market town of Holzkirchen, the decision-makers also groaned.
Should the overheated market with its hysterical hamster purchases put an abrupt end to the building with wood trend?
Wood shortage?
For the WBV boss that sounded too much like scare tactics
Hans Killer did not want to join this lament. It all sounded too much like scare tactics to him. “These claims at the time were simply wrong, there was never a shortage of wood.” Now, a few months later, the chairman of the Forest Owners Association (WBV) Wolfratshausen sees himself confirmed: “The market is calming down, both in America and here,” says the Altkirchner. “The large sawmills are currently not badly supplied.” A cubic meter in the standard length costs 110 euros net. He assumes that the extremely increased costs for sawn timber, i.e. the money that has to be put down for finished beams or laminated beams, will also decrease again. Only the need for long timber, i.e. trees over 20 meters, is currently still greater than the amount that can be delivered. "But that will also relax."
The demand for the renewable resource is still enormous, admits Killer.
But “considerable quantities” are also entering the market from the damaged areas in northern and central Germany, which have been badly hit by drought and bark beetles.
"There the spruce dies by the hectare." A hole of 10,000 cubic meters of wood in the forest is not uncommon, "and this is the wood that large saws provide for themselves".
Because even with damaged wood you can start a lot.
Not everything is blue, so it has taken on the typical bluish color due to a fungus transferred from the bark beetle.
Killer speaks here of "about a quarter".
The discolored wood ends up invisibly in the middle layers of chipboard or laminated beams.
In general, it is a purely visual defect; the discoloration has no static effects.
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Hans Killer, chairman of the Wolfratshausen forest owners' association.
© arp
Timber harvest limited this year
In contrast, there is currently little movement in the forests of the WBV.
There are tax advantages, but only those forest owners who “still have air”, as Killer puts it, can harvest.
This year, the forest farmer is only allowed to fell 85 percent of the amount of wood that he harvested between 2013 and 2017.
However, in 2021 - unlike usual - the tax authorities would also take damaged wood into account.
The reasons are the hurricane Niklas, which had raged during the evaluation period, and the massive plague of beetles in the past hot, dry summers.
For forest farmers who cannot provide any comparative figures, there is an upper limit of 75 cubic meters.
"We are already motivating the forest owners to cut wood," says Alexandra Gibis, who currently represents Wolfratshausen's district forester Robert Nörr.
But they react cautiously.
In addition to the mentioned impact restriction, there is “almost no bugs” this rainy summer, so no compulsion, says Hans Killer.
On the other hand, “the soil is so soft from the heavy rain that you cannot go into the forest with machines”.
Even light equipment ruins the subsurface.
The WBV boss expects “that our people will only start making wood again at the end of September, beginning of October.
Then the soil is stable again, the young shoots lignified, and the trees slowly go into sap dormancy. "
Blue color leads to price reductions between 15 and 20 euros per cubic meter
But it is by no means the case that the forest owners in northern and central Germany are now doing big business.
On the contrary: the situation is “a catastrophe” for colleagues, says Killer.
The blue color ensures price reductions between 15 and 20 euros per cubic meter.
The bigger problem, however, is the need to rejuvenate the stocks, which costs "an incredible amount of money".
The WBV boss fears the worst: Instead of pressing ahead with the urgently needed climate change-friendly forest conversion with heat-resistant species, “spruce is being reforested up there”.
There are hardly any alternatives: scorching sun on shadowy slopes “can't stand a fir tree or hardwood”.
Spruce and pine would best cope with this.
"And with that we find ourselves in a vicious circle again."
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