As of: January 22, 2024, 7:19 p.m
By: Michel Guddat
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A Baltic Sea tourist comes across a strange discovery on the way to the beach.
Many trees in the forest are marked and carved.
What was done here?
Prerow – A door to Narnia?
Signs of a tree's readiness to mate?
Or a harvester?
Wild and sometimes tongue-in-cheek comments under a post on
reddit.com
.
User “Robsta_20” shared the pictures after his walk to Darßer Beach on the Baltic Sea.
On his way through the forest he came across “strange markings” that could be admired on many pine trees.
His first suspicion: traces of a timber harvester who had stopped his work.
But this wood harvesting machine was not the culprit.
Strange discovery in the forest turns out to be traces of an almost forgotten profession
Rather, it is a Harzer.
And that doesn't mean cheese or mountains.
But the work of an almost forgotten profession.
“Skilled workers for the extraction of raw pine balsam,” explains Johannes Herbst, a former Harz resident, to
ZDFheute
.
That sounds more professional.
However, due to technology and changes, the profession has now disappeared.
A Baltic Sea tourist found pine trees with “strange markings” everywhere in the forest.
© Robsta_20/Reddit.com
The job of these workers, also known as pitchers, was to collect tree resin.
They provided the trunks with slanting notches, then with wooden pitch notches and attached a collecting container to them.
In the summer the resin came out of the notches.
Over time, a herringbone pattern emerged in the tree.
The pitch is primarily used as a sealant and lubricant
The black, tar-like pitch, as it is also called, is used primarily as a sealant and lubricant.
Sealing barrels, wound plasters, varnishes, paints, papermaking - resin was an indispensable product.
It is still used today: handball players use resin to better control the ball and the petroleum base previously used is also being replaced by resin in chewing gum.
Harzers cause trees to “bleed” – but their viability is not affected
“It’s interesting that trees can handle this so easily,” writes user “SmallWoodpecker5167”.
Although the resin harvesting method is said to cause the tree to “bleed”, its viability is probably not affected.
Although the freely notched area is more susceptible to weather influences and pests, the tree wound is protected and preserved by the escaping resin.
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A second notch in the tree is also possible on the opposite side.
The supply of water and nutrients to the crown of a tree is not blocked by the resin harvest.
This means that the growth of an affected tree is still guaranteed.
And so, 30 years after the last Harz, walkers in some pine forests in East Germany encounter the signs of an almost forgotten profession.
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(mg)