Exciting experiment: What does a forest look like that people leave alone?
Created: 09/17/2022, 12:00 p.m
By: Catherine Hauser
Martin Kainz (left) and Richard Baur (right) explain what the natural forest is all about.
Protect and Use © Private
In the Weilheim-Schongau district, 73 natural forest areas are being observed to see how the areas develop without human intervention.
One of them is in Hohenpeissenberg.
A visit to a special piece of forest.
Hohenpeißenberg
– Beech trunks stretch straight up towards the sky, the wind rustles the leaves, a jay screams.
It's green all around.
Green in various shades.
Above all, beech and spruce grow here in the forest in the municipality of Hohenpeissenberg.
The sun only peeks through the dense canopy in a few spots this morning.
"The natural forest is a completely new protection category," says Martin Kainz.
He is head of the "Forest" department at the "Afficiency for Food, Agriculture and Forestry" (AELF) in Weilheim, which is responsible for the districts of Starnberg, Weilheim-Schongau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Together with Richard Baur, the deputy forest manager Oberammergau of the "Bavarian State Forests", he informs in a designated natural forest in Hohenpeißenberg about this new instrument, with which the forest nature protection is to be strengthened.
Natural forests are forest areas that are left entirely to nature.
Article 12a of the Bavarian Forest Act (BayWaldG), which was revised as a result of the “Save the Bees” referendum, states that a green network of natural forests must be set up on ten percent of the state forest area by next year.
There are around 79,000 hectares of forest in the entire Free State, so far 58,000 hectares have been designated, and around 20,000 hectares are still missing.
Game is still hunted - otherwise "nothing would grow back"
In the AELF Weilheim area, there are now around 14,500 hectares of natural forest in the state forest, around 820 hectares are in the Weilheim-Schongau district.
One of the 73 forest areas left to nature is around seven hectares in size, which stretches from the Ammer in Hohenpeissenberg towards the bypass.
Like the other natural forest areas, it is not managed and no wood is taken from there.
“Human intervention is no longer allowed on these areas – with very few exceptions,” says Kainz.
If the felling and removal serve, for example, to combat pests or to avert danger, then there is an exception in such cases.
Otherwise the areas are left to nature.
However, this maxim does not apply to game, because not hunting it would have the exact opposite effect, as Kainz explains: “Otherwise nothing would grow back here.
We have too many game stocks.”
The effects of climate change can be read off precisely
As Baur and Kainz explain, three goals are associated with the designation as a natural forest area.
On the one hand, biodiversity should be preserved and promoted, on the other hand, the forest should, where possible, be made tangible for society.
If natural forest areas are then visited by so many forest walkers that nature suffers, the visitors can be guided with paths, for example.
In addition, areas are to be created on which it can be observed in the long term how the forest is developing with regard to climate change.
What changes or doesn't change, although it would have been expected which plants cope with the change and which don't.
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About two years ago, the forest in Hohenpeissenberg was reported as a natural forest.
It is not yet clear where the area that will be left to develop naturally begins and it should stay that way, as Baur and Kainz explain: "Ideally, you won't see a difference even after 20 to 30 years," says Kainz.
The motto of forest management in Bavaria has been "protect and use" for decades.
Article 1 of the Bavarian Forest Act stipulates that the forest, which has to fulfill cultural, economic, social and health-related tasks, must be managed sustainably.
"It's nothing new, it's been done here for 50 years," says Kainz.
The close-to-nature, small-scale management of the Bavarian state forests ensures that the natural forests and other forest areas do not differ greatly.
And in the best-case scenario, it will stay that way for decades to come.
further information
More information on natural forests and a map showing all the locations of natural forests in Bavaria can be found on the homepage of the Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry at www.stmelf.bayern.de.
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