As of: February 15, 2024, 4:38 p.m
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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
The onset of winter at the beginning of December is still having an impact: the damage to the region's forests is extensive, the clearance work currently underway is complex - and it costs the foresters more than they earn from the timber revenue.
District
- Forest owners and foresters would prefer to delete December 1st and 2nd, 2023 from the calendar.
The severe onset of winter two and a half months ago is really causing them problems.
“We are in the middle of dealing with the damage.
I have to go out into the forest every day.
If you want to save it, do it now,” says Martin Fink, chairman of the Starnberg Forest Owners Association, from Geisenbrunn.
“Every fifth tree is damaged,” says forester Bernhard Breitsameter for the site of the Kraillinger tank farm.
And Armin Elbs from the Graf zu Toerring-Jettenbach forestry administration in Seefeld says: “It's a huge effort - individual trees are affected every 50 to 100 meters.” An area-like snow or windfall, as the experts say, would be easier to remove.
What those surveyed by Merkur also agreed on: The financial outlay for repairing the damage is significantly higher than the proceeds that the wood sale subsequently brings back into the cash register.
Forestry director Elbs expects costs in the Toerring districts to be 25 to 30 euros per cubic meter (one cubic meter of solid wood mass).
“And you get 20 euros when you sell it if things go well.” He speaks of “considerable financial damage” for forest owners and of a “pure protective measure with a view to spring and summer”.
Dead wood, whether fallen treetops or broken branches, offers paradisiacal conditions for the dreaded bark beetle.
And the pest becomes active at around 15 degrees, so the forest workers have to hurry.
But: “They are difficult to get right now because everyone has the problem,” reports Bernhard Breitsameter, not only from Krailling.
Without the support of private companies, hardly any forest owner can control the situation in his forest.
A chipper has been standing on the tank farm site since the beginning of February and is running constantly.
Biomass for thermal power plants is produced from the numerous broken treetops.
“One container after the other is loaded and sent out,” says Breitsameter.
Starnberg forest owner chairman Martin Fink also reports “a lot of weak wood that is not marketable”.
Even further south there is chopping and making firewood.
Freezing rain, heaps of heavy snow and later wind have brought down many trees since December.
But they don’t even have to fall over to cause a problem, says Fink: “Many crowns are so bent that they can no longer be straight.
They prevent other trees from growing and have to come out.”
And why didn’t the damage repairs start earlier?
It makes sense to process the winter's legacy in one go so that the harvesters and other vehicles themselves cause as little damage as possible, explains Armin Elbs.
And the wetness in the forests also prevented its use for a while.
For Martin Fink it is clear: “We will still be very busy in the next few weeks.”
Viktoria Strachwitz
Tobias Gmach