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Spruces in the summer of 2020 in North Rhine-Westphalia: blunted
Photo: Fabian Strauch / DPA
The condition of the German forest deteriorated further in the past year.
Only 21 percent of the trees had completely intact treetops, as the forest status survey in 2020 showed.
It is the worst value since the evaluation began in 1984. The remaining 79 percent showed more or less severe damage.
The dramatic analysis will be presented by Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) on Wednesday afternoon.
"The storms, the drought, the massive bark beetle infestation and the increased forest fires of the past three years have massively damaged the forest in Germany," writes the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, which has the figures evaluated.
The figures were historically poor in the 2019 report, but the damage increased again last year.
The proportion of dead spruce trees increased 20-fold
The proportion of trees that died within a year has risen sharply.
Around 10,000 trees in Germany are regularly observed and their condition recorded for the analysis.
The condition of the entire forest can be extrapolated from this sample.
From 2019 to 2020, around 1.7 percent of all trees observed died.
That is also a negative record - and almost ten times the average in normal years.
The increase was particularly noticeable in spruce: around 4.3 percent of all trees observed died; values between 0.1 and 0.2 percent are common.
The bark beetle was to a large extent to blame for the mass extinction of the spruce.
The animals found ideal conditions last year, because 2020 was the third year with a dry summer in a row after 2018 and 2019.
Because of the lack of water, the beetles could easily invade spruce trees.
The trees had to be felled en masse.
In some federal states, Bundeswehr soldiers even came to work on dead trees.
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The bark beetle can do little to harm healthy forests.
The spruce monocultures that are widespread in many parts of Germany, on the other hand, are particularly vulnerable.
They are popular with foresters because spruce trees grow quickly and straight and can therefore be profitable.
However, the strategy has not proven to be environmentally or economically sustainable.
Because so many spruce trees were felled because of the bark beetle, the supply of spruce wood has increased massively.
The result was rapidly falling prices - according to the Federal Statistical Office by around 35 percent in three years.
Only every tenth beech tree is still intact
The beeches are even worse off than the spruce.
Fewer of these deciduous trees die, but for more than ten years between 30 and 60 percent of the beech trees have had a “clear crown defoliation”.
This means that the trees are missing 25 percent or more of the normal leaf mass.
In 2020, 55 percent, more than half of all trees were in such poor condition.
Only every tenth beech tree had an intact treetop.
The values fluctuate from year to year, but the negative trend began as early as the 1980s.
At that time, the proportion of beeches with a clear crown defoliation was just 13 percent, so it has quadrupled since then.
Last year, at least for the oaks, there was also good news, their condition improved somewhat.
"The oak is thus showing the first signs of regeneration, but remains at a high level of damage," write the authors of the forest condition survey.
Where the forest can no longer be saved, politicians now want to help plant new trees.
A total of around 1.5 billion euros in funding is available for municipal and private forest owners.
However, it is controversial whether this reforestation is really ecologically sustainable or whether the forests should not be left to nature for some time.
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