As of: February 13, 2024, 12:23 p.m
By: Victoria Strachwitz
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A chipper has been running continuously on the Kraillinger tank farm site since the beginning of February to shred broken treetops into biomass for thermal power plants.
The wood chips are transported away in containers.
© Michael Schönwälder
This winter, significantly more damage has occurred in the forests of the Würmtal than in previous winters.
The clean-up work is also particularly laborious and costs a lot of money.
Würmtal
– “We haven’t had a snowfall of this magnitude for ten years.” Jan Staugaard is the forest manager for Baron von Hirsch in Planegg.
This winter has taken a toll on his forest.
“There will definitely be 500 cubic meters of damage,” he says.
The surrounding foresters also noticed that significantly more damage was done this year than in other winters.
“Every fifth tree is damaged,” says forester Bernhard Breitsameter for the site of the Kraillinger tank farm.
He says not all broken trees need to be removed.
But since the beginning of February there has been a chipper on the site and running constantly.
Biomass for thermal power plants is produced from the numerous broken treetops.
“One container after the other is loaded and goes out,” he says.
He couldn't even quantify the damage.
Only this much is clear: the damage occurred in December.
Painstaking search for individual trees
Freezing rain, heaps of heavy snow and later wind caused many treetops and trees to fall.
They didn't fall into groups.
And therein lies the problem.
Individual broken trees are difficult to locate.
Foresters in Würmtal agree that it is easier when a storm knocks down trees over a large area.
Reprocessing is therefore particularly laborious and expensive.
Without outside support, none of the respondents can control the situation in their forest.
All of them asked external private entrepreneurs for help.
“But they are difficult to get right now because everyone has the problem,” says Breitsameter.
The Bavarian State Forests managed to hire two forest workers from private companies in the Kreuzlingen Forest and four in the Königswieser Forest.
“This is now costing the state forests a lot of money,” says Stefan Ziermann, district forester for the Bavarian State Forests in the Kreuzlingen Forest.
But anyone who doesn't act quickly now risks even greater damage.
If the dead trees and crowns are still lying in the forests when the bark beetles swarm out in spring, “we will quickly have a real problem,” explains Ziermann.
“Under no circumstances should you leave it lying around.” Breitsameter speaks of the “highest alert level in processing,” especially when it comes to spruces.
Spray paint and colorful ribbons
Numerous forest workers are now looking for individual broken trees like needles in a haystack and under time pressure.
The forest workers at the state forests are equipped with a smartphone and a map app in which they enter every tree that needs to be removed, says Ziermann.
They also have spray paint and colored ribbons with them to mark the damage on site and thus leave clues for those who will soon remove the trees.
Things are currently looking colorful in the forest, almost like a scavenger hunt.
As soon as the location and removal of the damaged trees is complete, they will be replanted.
But there is currently no focus on that.
The foresters hope to get the dead wood out of the forest by the end of March or beginning of April.
Otherwise the beetle will find heavenly conditions.