The forest farmers face many problems.
Storm damage puts pressure on prices, and the beetle lurks under the bark.
In addition, there is climate change, which requires radical forest conversion. Despite all the problems, there was also good news for the twelve forest farmers who had come to the meeting of the forest owners' association (WBV) Weilheim in Peißenberg.
Peißenberg
- The good news was: The wood price is currently a little better again after it was briefly in the cellar. But otherwise Marc Euer and Georg Goldhofer from the WBV and Sonja Scheurer from the Office for Food, Agriculture and Forests in Weilheim didn't have much good things to say.
According to Goldhofer, the wood market was determined by the “toilet paper effect” last year. Due to fears that the corona pandemic could lead to delivery bottlenecks, buyers made “panic and hamster purchases”. This has driven up the end-user price for a cubic meter of sawn timber from 250 to 700 euros. But the forest owners did not benefit from that. On the contrary: due to the storm damage and the beetle infestation, there was a lot of wood and so prices were depressed. In the area around Eglfing there was an additional 40,000 solid cubic meters of wood, in the Rosenheim area it was 200,000 solid cubic meters. In addition, a lot of beetle wood from Central Germany came onto the market.
In the meantime, prices have returned to an almost normal level, but the “overcrowded sawmills” will not decrease much, and the fact that the sawmills are no longer signing long-term contracts indicates that prices will fall again, said Goldhofer.
According to the WBV representative, you can still earn well with the submission (sale to the highest bidder).
Oak, sycamore and rarities such as cherry fetched high prices here.
The highest price was achieved for a sycamore maple two solid cubic meters in size, for which 28,000 euros were paid.
According to you, the current calamities in the forest are nothing new.
They have already existed in the past few years, as he showed on the basis of a list beginning in 2015.
In addition to bark beetles, storms and hail, heavy rain hit the forest in 2016.
Scheurer expects the climate in our region to change significantly.
As the temperature rises, however, there will be “no climate like in Spain”.
There will continue to be snow and frost in winter and drought and heavy rain in summer, "but everything will be more blatant".
Therefore, the forest conversion must now be started.
Mixed forest is very stable, and according to the current climate models, the fir tree also has good growth opportunities in it.
The forestry experts agree on one point.
There will be no miracle tree.
Forest farmers must also have the courage to plant new tree species that suit the location.
The experts do not see the problem of running out of lumber in the long term.
Fir can already replace spruce in construction, later it could also be hardwood, and industry will find solutions for this.
There were also current tips for forest farmers in Peißenberg.
You should check your stocks for drill dust from pests and remove infested trees quickly, otherwise the next year could be problematic.
If you want higher revenues, you should get PEFC certification, as wood certified in this way is paid better.
But bad wood also brings good money.
Anyone who does not remove standing or lying dead wood in which insects live or trees with nesting holes can receive money to promote biodiversity.
Other ecological trends in the forest are the use of plastic-free bite protection and the use of potted plants for new plantings, as these grow better.
By Alfred Schubert
