Yes, before i watched this video i always was sad when i looked at these dying trees but now that i understand what is happening it gives me hope that future generations and even my generation can enjoy future proofed and adapted forests.
Yes, in western Canada (British Columbia and Alberta, shown briefly in the video). Thanks to this video, it’s not as devastating as the usual climate stories are, but is it the same situation in parts of the world not in Germany? 🤔
In the Yukon there is a science forest, similar to the experiment you shown in this program. It doesn’t specifically focus on trees though. It also fiction agricultural plants to see what will grow in our harsh climate. I love this kind of science that takes years, but is done meticulously to see what will work for a particular environment. I would hope that similar projects around the world are in conversation to help make the changing world continue to be habitable and thriving. Very interesting video Ps I recently watched a video where a reforestation project in Scotland with all trees were of the same variety and it lead to similar problems. There is currently some efforts to allow the forest to “re-wild” and get back to a natural ecosystem. I guess human interference is not always what an area needs, and nature when left alone will move back to a state of homeostasis
A pine beetle came through the black hills in south dakota and decimated the pine trees there- which weren't planted by humans but basically a natural monoculture. It was extremely sad to see as I was growing up. But now the dead trees are falling down and being overtaken by new trees. Even though it looked like an apocalypse, it wasn't the end. Nature is able to regenerate itself very well, sometimes better if we lend a hand.
A different issue is happening in Aus. A lot of native species all up and down the ecological chain are being killed by phytopthera since they never coexisted before. It could take geologic time for the strongest to be selected for but by then time the genetic bottleneck could be extreme.
For those unfamiliar, the “Black Hills” got their name from the ponderosa pines growing so dense that they look black from a distance. It’s a beautiful forest, and one of the best-looking mountain ranges I’ve ever seen. I spent a week backpacking there last year, and the old-growth ponderosas were perfect for hammock camping!
Monocultures can be considered forests in a broad sense if they cover a large area with trees, but they differ significantly from natural or mixed-species forests in terms of biodiversity and ecological function.
Where I live in Eastern Canada, the forests are 100% natural and in many areas, all trees are dying because of increasing temperatures. Some types of trees need to freeze in winter for a certain period of time, but now that winters are getting warmer, some trees die because temperatures now are above the freezing point during long periods of time in winter. Also, some insects coming from the south move here because of the warmer temperatures and start attacking trees which have no defense mechanisms against those insects. So no, it's not just because of man-made monocultures
My grandma was from Germany. She always spoke so highly of the German forests. There was nothing like it. But she meant the forests before WW2 i.e. not the evergreen forests.
About 97% of native forests in Germany were cut down 300 years ago. That is why you have these fairy tails of Hänsel and Gretel getting lost in the dangerous forests. Forests in Germany today are mainly forest agriculture, not real forests.
@@AlJay0032 ok thanks for clarifying. also about the fairytales. Makes sense! Ok but if you cut down native forest and do nothing then 40-300y later you would have native forest again. I think she must have meant the remaining native forest. She grew up in the countryside.
We have the same problem in south Sweden. The spruce doesn't form natural forests there. The naturally dominant species are broad-leaf like oak, beech and birch. However in the 20th century, the "rational" forestry business planted a lot of monoculture spruce forests for profit reasons. In January of 2005 the storm Gudrun (known as Erwin internationally) destroyed a big portion of the southern Swedish forest. And nowadays we have big troubles with barks beetles.
Maybe it's time your governement took care of the problem, and understood that letting broadleaf grow is an essential part of what should be done for the environment (certainly much more so than promoting electric cars, sorting garbage and recycling). Good luck.
Fauna biologist metaphor: from the point of view of the entire forest biocenosis, the demographic explosions of bark beetles and other insects killing spruces are not the equivalent of viruses but, on the contrary, the equivalent of leukocytes regulating this abnormal massive intrusion.
Compared with tree plantations, old growth forests can have extensive areas with mosses, which have been shown to give an immense boost to the ability of soil to absorb and hold water, among many other benefits.
This is because trees are allowed to grow old, fall down and rot. A forest that is used for commercial purposes will be regularly cleaned and tended. We do need timber so it is not a bad thing.
You would not believe me! I had to find out myself. It took me 5 years.... to understand what an old single spruce tried to tell me..... 😂😂😂 It started to surround itself with mosses so I was sinking in when mowing....! Why is reasonable information kept away from us? I could have "killed" this amazing and beautiful tree and now I am rewarded by many new species like glow worms. Their roots "hold" earth together and prevent humus to be washed away. Maybe therefore mudfloodings (like now) happen more often?
@@dylanskrzypek5397 Moss is what usually grows under fir trees. Diversity is natural. You just have to sit back and watch it. There is no need to "fix" anything.
tldrtldr: Good news that monoculures are disappearing. Bad news, how they disappear. Oh and the National Park is at fault too because they "protected" the monocultures TLDR: there have been warnings of impending forest dying due to monocultures since the 1960s - nothing has been done - renaturation and regeneration could have started 50 years ago - now animals will be completely without a habitat for a long time, as the new forest will take decades. Warnings that man-made monocultures would die out were issued over 60 years ago. In the same way, there were already cost-effective ways of returning the forest to its natural state bit by bit, including natural regeneration. This was not done, and so the forest is now dying everywhere at once. As a result, trees will not dominate the view in the "forest" for a long time. In the Harz Mountains in particular, we will have to be patient before we can marvel at natural mixed beech forests again, since beech is one of the slowest growing trees
Honestly, that's fine. Forests are great but they're just one type of ecosystem among many. Open grasslands and meadows are equally important as they provide habitat for flowers, their pollinators, and a bunch of other types of organisms. Not everywhere needs to be a forest.
So that europe is since the 1900 the most forested place in the world dont click with your statement here. U must be an early believer in climat crisis
True. Trees dying due to drought damage and bark beetles was already a topic of discussion, when I was a teen in the 90s. This isn't coming as a surprise.
I live in New England in the U.S. and our forests are a mix of soft and hardwood. I own a fairly large forest and it’s a mix but it’s mostly oak, birch and maple. I don’t harvest any lumber. I have had multiple lumber companies want to harvest my lumber but I just let it grow. I did harvest some lumber about 30 years ago to build my home. I was very selective who I harvested my lumber. I also harvest some for firewood but I don’t cut healthy trees.
Harvesting infrequently is the most healthy option for the forest. Harvest a few trees as they reach maturity and allow younger trees to replace them. This allows sunlight to reach the forest floor and create a multilayered canopy. "Old Growth" forests are unhealthy for much of the wildlife.
Yeah, that's good. But Germany is about half the size of any individual state of the USA but has a population of around 1/5th of the whole USA. Germany just can't have as many forests as the USA, so it just can't be compared.
Congratulation to the Harz forester, Roland Pietsch, not to fight the beetle! In the Taunus, Hesse, they came with harvesters, eliminated all trees, and damaged the thin soil in large scale. This is desert now.
Yup first you couldn't recognize the places where you used to play as a kid but now as we started planting a new mix of local trees I'm stoked to see how much better it's going to turn out in a few years.
How can there be so many negative comments lamenting the dead trees when you can literally see grass and moss thriving in the same shot? They wouldn't even need to plant any new trees, nature is already reclaiming the land. In fact, the only thing that worries me is they are again planning to plant a bunch of non-native trees, as if nature is wrong and we must correct it.
Not doing anything and let nature take its course is not always beneficial. Stewardship and proper management can help preserve the forest. Aboriginal Americans used controlled burning to reduce damage by wildfires for thousands of years, for example.
that is the stupid arrogance of some humans....thinking they can control nature. then there are the evil ones that don't really want to control nature but make you afraid of climate change and get you to give them money so they can save you and really can't. you're poorer and no safer.
@@mhawang8204 Controlled burns are typically done to protect property in or near the woods rather than help nature. They wreaks havoc on insects and the understory in general. Sometimes they become necessary when people meddling with nature did something stupid, like plant eucalyptus in California.
Because obviously it's still a managed agricultural business, they clearly have no interest to let the area return to nature, it's all about the $$$. Quite frankly there would be nothing wrong with letting the beetles kill off the trees and start the nutrient cycle enriching the soil, and the dead trees are a valuable habitat for all sorts of organism in the mean time. But the land is just a farm to be managed and exploited one way or another.
maybe us running around doing silly things is just as natural as what happened before "naturally"? we ARE nature... just doing things a different way, spice it up a bit... everything, anything we do is just nature working in its own mysterious way... there is no "good" or "bad"... it just IS. regards fires... i like to ponder about what our introduced weeds will evolve into... how will bamboo, privet, lantana, and camphr laurels deal with bushfires when theres no humans around anymore? all the fruit trees and ornamentals that we bought with us? a couple of millenia of drought, fires, floods... how the animals will change, with the foxes and canetoads and rabbits and cats and dogs and goats and horses and sheep and... the sad part is contemplating how all those carefully bred and selected breeds and species will inevitably all be forgotten and fade into the depths of history...
Here in Ireland we have spruce monocultures and no bark beetle (yet) but already other species are being investigated, such as native species like birch, alder and Scots pine. We previously planted lots of native ash but that has been decimated since early 2010s due to ash die back, and native elm by Dutch elm disease! Diversity, breeding programs and better forestry practices will all help but definitely a big challenge.
The way the trees were planted also matters. If the saplings are grown without genetic variety, they will bring that genetic poverty with them and be more prone to disease.
Doubt you will have problems, unless you get some serious heat and drought. So sad, the state of ireland's forest in general. Either non-existent or monoculture, outside a few pockets.
In New Zealand exotic pine has been planted to offset carbon emissions and for the timber industry. These mono-culture plantations have cause extensive flooding where forestry waste has clogged streams and extensive landslides where planted on steep terrain. This has resulted in pressure to replace the exotic pine with slower growing native trees that have evolved for our climatic conditions. I'm surprised that Germany is trialing a range of exotics instead of planting trees native to the area
We also need to experiment with new species. Because climate is changing and will be even more different in 10years. It s the shifting baseline. We won t go back to the 20th s climate, so natives might not be fit to be natives in 10years... Thus the need for experiments with more species.
The flooding isnt just due to the type of trees....it is due to logging and slack requirements around waste. Other trees would have had the same issue if the industry is not properly supervised.
@@lazydaisee3997 We don't clear fell native trees.... anymore (in the last 100+ years following British rule/plunder) Unfortunately pine trees have shallow root structures which makes plantations on steep topography susceptible to landslides. You can see the impact of this on areas of East Cape that were affected by last years floods. With respect to harvesting practices; Mono-culture Eucalyptus plantation would also generate large volumes of slash if they were clear felled. The main difference is that the limbs of pine trees are trimmed throughout their lives to maximise the value of their wood. Eucalyptus is turned into pulp and so their plantations only generate large amounts of slash once
Because of climate change trees native to Germany might also go extinct here soon, that's why a wider range of species is planted, that those which adept best might thrive.
@@moos5221i live deep in the bush in canada. Trees re plant themselves when left alone, they seed like crazy. Let nature take care of itself, humans aren’t wise enough to
70 years ago in my country Croatia constructed drainage canals to drain swamps Led to the lowering of the groundwater below the reach of the roots, which caused elm (Ulmus) to die out. In 2009 I planted 2,15 hectares natural habitat of oak (Quercus robur) and ash tree (Fraxinus angustifolia). Later area was naturally infested with hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and now I have incredibly beautiful, precious, multicultural, healthy young forest, for future generations. Total investment was €22000. Can'f say how happy I am! It is a Project worth of living. ❤
The spruce bark beetle has caused a spruce collapse in my area of Alaska. Hemlock, aspen and birch are holding strong. Now I have to just about clear cut my property to remove all the fire fuel. We have had a lot of snow and average rain. Yes, I will replant native white spruce and add a few more hemlock.
She states Douglas fir is hard… it indeed is NOT hard. The Douglas fir is used commonly in North America for framing houses and is most commonly milled into 2X4’s and used as studs as it is quick and easy to mill. It’s a soft wood that grows quickly and often has a pink hue. I am a carpenter and use Douglas fir a lot to make shop furniture and jigs because it’s easy to work with (because it’s soft) and it is cheap.
Douglas first are an horrendous choice for plantations in the Northeast USA, i cannot imagine being an any better choice for Northeastern Europe either. Frazier firs may be a better candidate if you insist on planting an alien species in EU
12:37 ahhhhh….finally “biodiversity “ was dropped just in the nick of time. Why not address it as the story arc since the lack of it is what got the forests and the people to the present circumstances?
Yeah, the thing doing this is not Climate Change. This is just a natural cycle leveling out an overpopulated species. The fact that the overpopulated species is a badly placed and over-planted farm product is inconvenient for human agriculture is not a major tragedy. Humans are smart enough to make use of the dead wood, and where they don't, nature will.
I live in the southeastern United States.....and the pine beetle is hitting us bad. But when they die.....hardwoods take their place. That is much better for wildlife, lumber, and so on.
Much of the southeastern USA was once prairie. It could not be documented a lot though since the camera had not been invented until when most of it was destroyed. There were also coastal pine savannas, (dominated by pine) and the pine would be thinned out by routine fire. So I don’t really think hard woods coming in should be celebrated for you depending on where you live.
@@frenchpotato2852 A pine forest is basically a wildlife desert. Not much underbrush.....and trees that don't produce anything that attracts good sized game.
@@09rjabut it wasn’t primarily a forest, it was a Savannah. The trees that grow in the savannahs never form a closed canopy and allow large open areas. These open areas are filled with wildflowers and large grasses. It was an ecosystem adapted to periodic fires, which have been long repressed, hence why it is nearly forgotten now and forests took over. There is a great channel called “native habitat project” that covers this extensively, taking place in northern Alabama.
Most of us will probably not live long enough to see the final results, but this seems to be the best solution so far to repair what humanity has done to the forests.
What many might not know too is that the vast amount of now dead decaing trees will feed all the new trees. It will give a mager boost to the new plant and animal life in the forest.
@@nighthawk3045 I realized it. I stated "before" an old tree is dying some black great ants are coming. Than the tree has millions of blossoms and tiny fruits (looks like an umbrella) when work of who ever is finished, a normal wind is taking it to ground and either the roots are eaten up? or they rotten? I removed the tree! Not better knowing at that time.... This year I saw a a big old ash (age unknown) on a sunny wintermorning exhaling through the bark. After some weeks it fell down.... almost silent. Same thing, roots cut off/eaten up, but this time no wind. Where I have tree stumps, the plants I placed show some kind of exorbitant growing. Black ants and insects I never saw before live there in perfect harmony.... The most strange thing is when I somtimes plant someting it seems to walk and looks for a better place or some plants take shelter 😀 in the shadow of other plants... as if the onions can also move 😀😃 and the ants are their Navigation System:)))) or Starlink Satellites in "outer space". For not loosing "control" at the border I take pictures every year 🙃😊😇
The German language does not use the word "Feld" (field) "Plantage" (plantation) in the context of trees. "Feld" would be for crops (wheat, corn, vegetables etc, but also meadows, grass, Alfalfa). "Plantage" for fruits (organes, apples, but also cotton). Unless you count "Kurzumtriebsplantagen" (short turnaround plantations) for "Energieholz" energy wood) which are field of rapidly growing woods/scrubs that are harvested about every 2 years (or sometimes up to 8 years) using forage harvesters. The German language also distinguishes between "Wirtschaftswald" (managed forest) and "Urwald" (natural/primeval forest) under the umbrella term of "Wald" (Forest).
My family has had a small timber farm in East Texas for generations. We tried Florida Slash Pine in the '50s because of it's rapid growth versus the native Loblolly. Big mistake. Between root fungus and Ips Pine Beetle I'd had enough in 2000 with a clear cut and went back to Loblolly on half the acreage. That stand is doing very well although still a monoculture. The other half of the farm I let go natural in 2015. It's presently dominated by Yaupon Holly but some trees like Sweetgum and Dogwood are raising their heads.
The poplar tree is a much underutilized tree. It grows very straight without anything or many branches at the bottom. It grows very quickly. I grew up in Northern Ontario. Now 69 years old. My father’s sawmill in the 1940’s to 1970’s produced Spruce and Jack Pine lumber. My father said a number of times that poplar wood was in a number of ways better than spruce and pine. Like birch trees, poplar will rot very quickly in the bush when the bark is left on. However, when the poplar bark is taken off, it rots much slower than Spruce. When I was in my teens, he showed me a trappers log cabin which was over 50 years old at the time. The roof was collapsed and was just a shell of a building. But the poplar logs used for the walls were not rotten at all, even on the ground, because the bark had been taken off. My dad made some lumber from poplar. He said it was much better for floor joists and house frames. The wood has a very straight grain and will never twist. My dad made a large summer home made from poplar 75 years ago. My sister lives in that home year round that is in excellent condition. The negative issue with poplar wood is that when cut down it is very heavy until it dries out. Then it is extremely light. It can be piled in the bush off the ground for a year to dry out. Or, can be cut while not dried out. The wood does not shrink. The wood is softer when it comes to being more easily dinged when hit with something so makes a poor choice for furniture. I suspect the reason for poplar being less expensive is due to how fast the tree grows. As well, I think much more wood can be harvested from an area given how close together the trees can grow.
Lots of antique furniture is made out of poplar and it is very durable, tulip tree and cotton woods are the most common ones we have in America and cottonwoods may not have as pretty of wood as tulip trees but they can grow in large swathes of land without planting. I think the future of house building is deciduous trees.
My brother had a pop house, my sister had one, my dad had one, my brother had one, my sister had 3. That’s all I heard when I read that was a bunch of bs.
Well done story. Additional points you missed: * by cutting trees as they are infested, before they die you get better quality wood * by cutting trees as they are infested, you break up the large single age stands into smaller stands of different ages. This can help act as fire breaks * age diversity also can be better for animals by providing different types of food and ground cover in shorter travel distance.
I don't think people in the past were intentionally more patient than people today. They were more patient because that was the only option. They simply did not have the industrial means to act impatiently.
@@stuartwithers8755idk. I feel like generally the industry and businesses are also getting more impatient. Everything nowadays is just to boost short term shareholder value, often seemingly sacrificing longterm investments and damaging the business. The line must go up
They could dig swales, turn dead wood into woodchip to use it as mulch to save more water and create massive permaculture fields/gardens on the hills with a lot of biodiversity. Sadly this is not going to happen cause they just wanna plant another monoculture...
As mentioned by one of the foresters, "we're impatient". The example of the oak taking centuries to grow: will humans still be around? Again, as mentioned we have commodified nature for profit. And yes, we are also 'a part' of Nature, but it's time that we recognised that we have long ago passed the Planet's "carrying capacity"...for humans.
The planet could sustain human life, even up to more than 10 billion people. But only if we lived sustainably - reusing, recycling, not buying 50 pieces of clothing in a year, not flying and not eating meat at our rate.
@@phoebeel then it's just a few people that keep the average high and we all know who they are and what gender... because it isn't men that spends a fortune on clothes every single month
@@LiLBitsDK why do you suddenly have to bring gender into it? So what women spend more on clothes, men drive around senselessly in their tuned cars. Both genders do shitty consumerist things
Dengan melihat berita ini saya mengambil kesimpulan.. Bahwa DW sebagai kantor berita resmi pemerintah jerman dan dibiayai oleh pemerintah jerman seolah2 memberitakan bahwa kerusakan hutan diwilayah mereka akibat penanaman monokultur adalah baik bagi makhluk hidup dan bumi. Dan berita ini tidak menyebutkan tentang kesalahan pemerintah jerman apapun yang hutannya dikuasai para oligarki. Betapa munafiknya mereka.
What I like about evergreen forests is that ticks have issues to survive in the sour ground. But now these forests get slowly replaced by oaks, beeches etc., and ticks and Lyme disease and TBE are moving north
Totally. This happened to a piece of forest behind our grandma's house. We bought the land and are rewilding it now. The dead trees planted trees are giving way to so much life.
I took a cruise from Alaska to Vancouver last year and the trees looked fine. As you get into Canada you can see them harvesting trees on all the islands. They do it sustainably though.
Pine beetle infestations have devastated western Canada. A cruise ship isn't going to reveal to you the reality of this, these forests are inland. You're painting a portrait of forestry in Canada that's inaccurate.
I lived in Germany many years, riding motorcycles on the amazing, perfect roads and hiking the Black Forest every day. The incredible foliage, high waterfalls and wildlife, just breathing the scented air are some of my best memories. I plan to visit again soon, but I will check my old routes first. If they are like that I will wait for new growth, call it denial but I don't want that to be my latest memory of the magic Black Forest. Germany has transformed it's environment, switched the majority of fossil fuel energy to solar etc. They will take this on, heal and recover better forests, and probably help anyone they can do it too. They have politicians of all sides who see the need, and appreciate a beautiful environment. Every time I talk to German friends about our beautiful countries, I tell them how lucky they are not to Suffer under a criminal anti-Earth Idiot, like our own diaper-rashed Traitor Trump.
Bark Beetle infestation is more related to warm winters in Colorado and Wyoming, cold freezing cold is good regulator of bug infestation for same reason birds and bison migrate.
@@phyarth8082 yes I know that but I guess the beetle are faster in destroying the bark/tree than the tree actually can seal the holes. Also if it's too dry or hot than the trees are under stress as you probably know already. I think that we definitely need to think different for the future
@imtheeastgermanguy5431 The natural enemy of bark beetles are woodpeckers. They eat the beetle larvae. You see then everywhere in dying forests, but I their population takes years to grow large enough to stop a sudden beetle outbreak
Ireland is full of these monoculture spruce plantations and we have very little native forest left. It’s such a shame because the non-native monoculture plantations can’t support any native wildlife like squirrels, birds, small mammals etc. walking through them is eerie because they’re so quiet without birdsong
This video was super interesting! I visit the Harz mountains multiple times a year and I don't know how often I heard that "the Harz is dying" and that "the bark beetle is destroying the Harz", while it's actually just a natural and positiv progress that will hopefully lead to better forests in the future.
We can collect and breed seeds from native plants and help the ecosystems to recover much faster and more efficiently... we need big canopy trees, smaller trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers, climbers and fungi plus have to create dams and fishponds to store the rainwater and support wildlife and migrating birds
Leaf area index (LAI) of Europe shows, there is 30% more vegetation now then 50 years ago. Also, due to increased CO2 levels, plants today need 40% less water than 50 years ago. As a consequence Europe's entire biosphere has increased significantly. If this is a "crisis", we need more of it.
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Well, 50 years ago we had socialism is half of Europe. It is indeed true that the end of socialism was good for the environment.
Socialism is coming back fast in Western Europe and America. To be precise socialist totalitarian regime with private enterprise. Just like in the 1930’s Germany. Leftist people are really not very smart.
@@omnirath Cognitive dissonance to claim declining biodiversity, in a system, which is growing explosively. Almost certainly, most existing species are increasing in individual headcount as well as new species emerging in freshly opened niches. You should read on the subject of "CO2 fertilization". It's all good news.
The pine beetle is a real pest in Canada. In BC we plant pine trees which has been hit hard by the beetle. There are vast tracks of dead trees. We are now trying to make mixed forests that are more native to the area. Also we are using native practice of controlled burns.
In the national park "Bayerischer Wald" the transformation has already happened. The spruce trees have already dies off 20 years ago. In the area around the mountain 'Lusen' the is now an incredible young multicultur forest.
It is a good perspective not to always look at things from the negative side, but also to see the opportunities for the future in changes. That's why I really like this post. It's a very sad sight to see a dying forest, but as described in the film, it only takes a few years for a new forest to emerge. Nature heals itself, but forestry and its intervention is still very important. As can be seen in the film, tree species that are not native to Germany are already growing there, grow very quickly and spread incredibly quickly and deprive the slower-growing, native tree species of their livelihood. These introduced tree species have to be painstakingly removed by the forestry industry in order to give the forest a chance to grow with native wood again. So it doesn't work entirely without people, after all, people are also responsible for the fact that tree species that are not native here have come to Germany.
"We screwed it all up the first time but by golly we'll get it right this time". Uh-huh. And in 50 years people will see what we've done today and say "what were they thinking?"
I was biking through Germany two years ago when it was still fresh. When the trees weren’t grey yet. It looked terrible. But if it’s healing, it’s really good news ❤
Just goes to show that there's still a lot of lacking public education on how healthy ecosystems work and how they renew themselves naturally (not to mention help stabilise local soils and hydrology), if only people let them.
Fantastic information, as always. I find it curious @9:22 how tracks are made up/down the hill - probably for stability of harvesting equipment? Otherwise I would have done it along contour lines, as to catch water after rainfall events. This way, it's more of a ravine through which the water can wash away soil that's no longer help together by roots.
You are right, but it's only the peak of the mountain of the problem. After harvesting the trees: -> heavy rain takes away top soil -> lower areas (often urban) are flooded -> less water retained and percolated to water table / aquifers -> in the summer low level or dry rivers -> low levels of ground water -> deeper wells further lowering water table and destroying aquifers So it's a chain of events, and floods, droughts are blamed by mass media and politicians on CO2 related climate change.
Yes. But not just the politicians and the oil industry. It's also a problem for the "man in the street", who sees the need for change as a threat to his style of life.
Good content. Our german friends are also kindly invited to walk in the forests of France to confirm their studies. Our forest are statisticaly increasing their surface area since two decades while experiencing the climate evolutions too. Our national parks have also a variety of different caracteristics accross the country. Bonus : nature did part of its own sélection in most areas. From hot Mediterranean zones, elevated altitudes, cold area, all make a complete panel and probably has a lot of what should be the german climate in a few decades. Wishing Germany a successfull path to these adaptations 👍
We have the same issue here in the Czech republic but it was due to spruce planting i the 1800s and now many forests are so vulnerable due to the bark beetle. Now the replanting is more calculated by adding more leafy trees that are more natural for this area and create mixed spruce max 30 percent along side other types of trees for healthier forests
they make an amazing wild fire thats for sure and Portugal wonder why they have so many wildfires... all the while, they keep planting Eucalyptus all over the place...
An excellent reason to leave mother nature alone. It's tiring to keep seeing stories of man "knowing better". Fact is man is clueless. Nature has it's own scheme for nature.
and animal species that we have caused to go extinct in those areas... so large grazers/browsers, pigs, wolves, bears etc. etc. (depending on the area) even if it means loss of "mountainbike trails" and whatever other silly stuff people complain about losing... NATURE NEED SPACE...
I follow this approach in my mothers forests since about 12 years now when I started to take care of it. I mostly plant oak and acorn, but also other species. Lovely to see it on a greater scale!
Logging and control burn fires create healthy forests. Plain and simple. Clear cutting is necessary for wildlife conservation for species like deer who are fringe habitat animals. Dead, standing trees can be cut and used. Its a problem of waste an laziness. Leave it to Germany...
The national park covers only a tenth of the Harz mountains, in many areas around the prospects of rejuvenation look way less auspicious, the soils are just too dried out, the replacing vegetation cannot really stop that.
"How dare you!" Is this a management thing? Most of the forest fires in the U.S. are caused by poor undergrowth management, et al, too much fire suppression contributing to a buildup of tinder.
Management is always part of the problem, but this is happening all over the world. And it’s not just the trees! But most people want to blame it on the local politicians, and ignore the world is facing a much bigger problem.
@@senatorjosephmccarthy2720 well, I guess if there was a forest fire a hundred years ago, everyone that has been evacuated year after year for the last ten years should just quit crying. Apparently it’s always been this way. But for some reason our parents and grandparents just forgot fleeing their homes every summer. I’m sure as Florida disappears into the sea, there will still be people saying high tide is a natural phenomenon.
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As someone who only took 1 year of German 40 years ago, I found it easy to understand with subtitles turned on. There was even an onscreen notice to turn on subtitles..
Not annoying! Just either do or don't caption, I am used to turning on captions, but if there are already captions showing up randomly it gets difficult.
@@jamesr1703 Humans have the conscious capacity to choose that behavior or choose to change thier behavior. And they can be convinced by fellow humans to change thier behavior for the better. Beetles can not do so. It's important to not forget that when making comparisons likening humans to parasites, so that we don't treat humans like parasites and give them choices to not behave like parasites.
I visited the Harz Mountains a couple of months ago to ride the steam railway. I was shocked to see the barren wilderness, but am now pleased that all is not lost. The forcing of non-native species is always bad, so to get back to more natural species has to be better.
Finally someone saying let nature be nature! Nature is smarter than us. It knows what it is doing. Just because we don't understand it doesn't mean it is bad. What a breath of fresh air!
I've seen the effects of the pine beetles in BC in Canada. Now the forests are on fire too and wood has become expensive. We sell pine beetle affected wood though for a premium. At least it's being used a bit. I'm hoping we get more local trees in our forests.
im 79 grand papy said when i was 10 years old at the time we were cutting and clearing an area when it was replanted (1955) he said these trees will ready when you are older than me he passed at 75 , im 79. now these trees 70 years later are now ready for harvesting and a replant.
I've seen it in western Germany as well, and it was quite obvious that the vast majority of dead trees were spruces. Everything around was green. And even in those forests that were still alive, the floor in the broadleaf parts was black, moist, occasionally even still had puddles on the paths, while the spruce parts were beige or grey, bone dry. Perfect for erosion, especially once the trees are gone, and probably contributing quite a bit to the recent floodings if the forests can hardly retain any water
U.S. and Canada Data In the U.S., total forest area increased by 18 million acres between 1990 and 2020, which averages out to the equivalent of around 1,200 NFL football fields every day. Canada's total forest area remained relatively stable over the 30-year assessment period at approximately 857 million acres.
Very interesting. The whole world should take these studies about forests, forestry, and adaptations to climate change to minimize natural disasters. Thank you!
5:15 to clarify not to criticise what the forester said: The beaker contains 2000 bugs (50ml x 40 bugs at 40 bugs an ml), not the trap. The trap in the video is filled at a quarter of its volume. Its volume is unknown to me, but looks like a 1 liter or 1.5. Each pair produces up to 100k new bugs a year. It would be interesting to know how many trees filled the trap like that during what time.
I think this problem with spruce monoculture showed many years ago during the windstorm in Slovakian High Tatras. It took High Tatras several years to get a certain diversified tree coverage again, but I think finally it doesn't look like a "moonscape"
In midwestern USA, we have Emerald Ash Borer that targets Ash trees in a similar way. The Ash trees in my area are all dying. I just helped cut down 7 of them in my neighbors yard, and I have 4 dead or dying trees in my yard! But these Ash trees are planted as shade trees, not in plantations for commercial logging.
Exactly the same in British Columbia. So many of the ancient forests have been replaced with tree farms which, as you say, are quite boring. Especially compared to the majestic old growth forests. This practice continues today, and because of lobbying, it will likely continue for the foreseeable future.
They make forests full of one type of tree, leaving nothing to grow on and are suprised forest is randomly dying. I'm happy we got one big ancient forest in Poland and many of other wild (albeit younger for various reasons) forests.
I love that they are trying to fix our forests, but if im honest, i dont think we should bring trees to a forest that don't belong there. just plant native trees like mother nature intended to❤ Thanks for this beautiful documentary and some good news!
Y'all need to get some Georgia pine (Pinus strobus, I think). It's hearty and heat/drought tolerant. I'm pretty sure they don't mind the frost and winter. They thrive in the mountains here. Unfortunately, the invasive pine trees that grow like twigs have displayed the true GA pine. Come get some while they still have pinecones. Also, it's disturbing seeing this much of the forests in such a state. Pleases continue to grow a variety of trees and allow nature to heal itself. German forests are so beautiful when they had diverse tree and medows. Miss that place so much. Hopefully, I can return one day.
This was very interesting, and somewhat hopeful. With regard to selecting new species to introduce in that area, I would have liked to hear more discussion of not only the trees' inherent characteristics, but how they fit in with the wider environment, with species of animals/insects that depend on specific environmental characteristics for their survival. The question ought not to be only about whether the trees can survive, but whether the whole ecosystem can thrive with the replacement of old species by new ones that have different qualities.
Those aren’t wild forests. There’s no such thing as forests in Europe anymore. All the trees were cut down a very long time ago. All Europe has now are tree farms. Tree farms are planted all with the same species close together. That’s why disease, fire and bark beetles kill the tree farms. A healthy, natural forest that is managed properly does not die off like this.
Thanks for this good news! I never liked these monoculture forests, they always looked pale and artificial to me. Even though it will take a long time, this forest will be better off in the future. Sometimes old things have to die for the new thing to prosper.
It rains almost every day in Harz mountains, there are barely a couple of weekends/year when it's sunny and possible to go there for a weekend. I've never seen in being very dry.
As if we haven't learned from previous times. Hands off ... let nature do its thing and it will be cheaper, more efficient and healthier than whatever mankind (or AI) can do.
It seems like the foresters around the world really need to start (if they aren't already) collaborating and sharing information and strategies about dealing with these changes. I live in the NW United States and our forests are currently being ravaged by the beetles. Be it the Pine Bark beetle or the Ash beetle. So this is hardly a localized epidemic. I also found it interesting that the Douglas Fir is being considered as they're struggling here on the West Coast. The beetles are making great strides in wiping out the forests due to the climate changes weakening the trees.
Here in the US SW poor forest management has increased wildfires. Droughts are cyclic and evidences shows they have happened in the past and some were much worse. The bark beetle naturally infects trees here when a tree is struck by lighting which opens a crack or a branch breaks due to a previous winters heavy snowfall. An infected tree shows up when the outside bark get a green fungus growth that comes out of the beetles guts. During droughts some trees succumb to the lack of sap flow compromised by the beetles.
The bad news is that the dead trees are not "cleaned". Branches MUST be removed and the tree cut down in length. Otherwise, the woopeckers will not create nests in them. And that means the secondary nesters will not have trees to nest in. And you need to plant ducidious trees to provide for birds nesting in those kind of trees. Soft wood trees like spruces take a looooooong time to decompose. That is bad because they will never become suitable for small woodpeckers and tits. All important for the defence of the forest. Norway have had its bark beetle wars. There is even a popular song about it.
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Have you seen anything similar where you live?
Yes, before i watched this video i always was sad when i looked at these dying trees but now that i understand what is happening it gives me hope that future generations and even my generation can enjoy future proofed and adapted forests.
Yes, I live in Germany.
Yes, birch and spruce are dying off by themselves, and american oak is being cleared to make room for more diversity in forests in the Netherlands.
Yes, in western Canada (British Columbia and Alberta, shown briefly in the video). Thanks to this video, it’s not as devastating as the usual climate stories are, but is it the same situation in parts of the world not in Germany? 🤔
In the Yukon there is a science forest, similar to the experiment you shown in this program. It doesn’t specifically focus on trees though. It also fiction agricultural plants to see what will grow in our harsh climate. I love this kind of science that takes years, but is done meticulously to see what will work for a particular environment. I would hope that similar projects around the world are in conversation to help make the changing world continue to be habitable and thriving. Very interesting video
Ps I recently watched a video where a reforestation project in Scotland with all trees were of the same variety and it lead to similar problems. There is currently some efforts to allow the forest to “re-wild” and get back to a natural ecosystem. I guess human interference is not always what an area needs, and nature when left alone will move back to a state of homeostasis
A pine beetle came through the black hills in south dakota and decimated the pine trees there- which weren't planted by humans but basically a natural monoculture. It was extremely sad to see as I was growing up. But now the dead trees are falling down and being overtaken by new trees. Even though it looked like an apocalypse, it wasn't the end. Nature is able to regenerate itself very well, sometimes better if we lend a hand.
A different issue is happening in Aus. A lot of native species all up and down the ecological chain are being killed by phytopthera since they never coexisted before. It could take geologic time for the strongest to be selected for but by then time the genetic bottleneck could be extreme.
For those unfamiliar, the “Black Hills” got their name from the ponderosa pines growing so dense that they look black from a distance. It’s a beautiful forest, and one of the best-looking mountain ranges I’ve ever seen. I spent a week backpacking there last year, and the old-growth ponderosas were perfect for hammock camping!
@@LuMaxQFPV Haha
Life uhh uhhh finds a way 🤔
As long as there is enough water to keep those saplings hydrated.
Those are not forests.
Those are monocultures of an invasive species of fast growing, cheap wood.
Monocultures can be considered forests in a broad sense if they cover a large area with trees, but they differ significantly from natural or mixed-species forests in terms of biodiversity and ecological function.
Where I live in Eastern Canada, the forests are 100% natural and in many areas, all trees are dying because of increasing temperatures.
Some types of trees need to freeze in winter for a certain period of time, but now that winters are getting warmer, some trees die because temperatures now are above the freezing point during long periods of time in winter.
Also, some insects coming from the south move here because of the warmer temperatures and start attacking trees which have no defense mechanisms against those insects.
So no, it's not just because of man-made monocultures
Yep. Exactly
The most planted tree isn't invasive but the rest is true
that is just exactly what the video explained xd
My grandma was from Germany. She always spoke so highly of the German forests. There was nothing like it. But she meant the forests before WW2 i.e. not the evergreen forests.
About 97% of native forests in Germany were cut down 300 years ago. That is why you have these fairy tails of Hänsel and Gretel getting lost in the dangerous forests.
Forests in Germany today are mainly forest agriculture, not real forests.
@@AlJay0032small tip, the natural forest in germany would be called "Wald" in german, and the artificially planted ones are called "Forst".
@@AlJay0032 ok thanks for clarifying. Then she must have meant the remaining native forest.
@@AlJay0032 ok thanks for clarifying. also about the fairytales. Makes sense! Ok but if you cut down native forest and do nothing then 40-300y later you would have native forest again. I think she must have meant the remaining native forest. She grew up in the countryside.
@@mradventurer8104 Some tree species take thousands of years to reintroduce themselves into large swaths of regrown natural forest.
These were plantations, not forests. Even in the 90's it was already talked about, how it may cause trouble in the future.
We have the same problem in south Sweden. The spruce doesn't form natural forests there. The naturally dominant species are broad-leaf like oak, beech and birch. However in the 20th century, the "rational" forestry business planted a lot of monoculture spruce forests for profit reasons. In January of 2005 the storm Gudrun (known as Erwin internationally) destroyed a big portion of the southern Swedish forest. And nowadays we have big troubles with barks beetles.
We have alot of trees but diminishing forests. Its basically just plantations now
Evergreen trees can alkso be subject to diseases and insect attack - example dutch elm disease
Maybe it's time your governement took care of the problem, and understood that letting broadleaf grow is an essential part of what should be done for the environment (certainly much more so than promoting electric cars, sorting garbage and recycling). Good luck.
Fauna biologist metaphor: from the point of view of the entire forest biocenosis, the demographic explosions of bark beetles and other insects killing spruces are not the equivalent of viruses but, on the contrary, the equivalent of leukocytes regulating this abnormal massive intrusion.
@@jeanpierrechoisy6474 And how does that apply to dutch elm disease and ash die back disease ?
Compared with tree plantations, old growth forests can have extensive areas with mosses, which have been shown to give an immense boost to the ability of soil to absorb and hold water, among many other benefits.
Basically whote people ruined 😂 got it
This is because trees are allowed to grow old, fall down and rot. A forest that is used for commercial purposes will be regularly cleaned and tended. We do need timber so it is not a bad thing.
You would not believe me! I had to find out myself. It took me 5 years.... to understand what an old single spruce tried to tell me..... 😂😂😂 It started to surround itself with mosses so I was sinking in when mowing....! Why is reasonable information kept away from us? I could have "killed" this amazing and beautiful tree and now I am rewarded by many new species like glow worms. Their roots "hold" earth together and prevent humus to be washed away.
Maybe therefore mudfloodings (like now) happen more often?
Thats a great idea for forest owners. We should be planting moss and other species to make the diversity stronger and create less risk
@@dylanskrzypek5397 Moss is what usually grows under fir trees. Diversity is natural. You just have to sit back and watch it. There is no need to "fix" anything.
tldrtldr: Good news that monoculures are disappearing. Bad news, how they disappear. Oh and the National Park is at fault too because they "protected" the monocultures
TLDR: there have been warnings of impending forest dying due to monocultures since the 1960s - nothing has been done - renaturation and regeneration could have started 50 years ago - now animals will be completely without a habitat for a long time, as the new forest will take decades.
Warnings that man-made monocultures would die out were issued over 60 years ago. In the same way, there were already cost-effective ways of returning the forest to its natural state bit by bit, including natural regeneration. This was not done, and so the forest is now dying everywhere at once. As a result, trees will not dominate the view in the "forest" for a long time. In the Harz Mountains in particular, we will have to be patient before we can marvel at natural mixed beech forests again, since beech is one of the slowest growing trees
Honestly, that's fine. Forests are great but they're just one type of ecosystem among many. Open grasslands and meadows are equally important as they provide habitat for flowers, their pollinators, and a bunch of other types of organisms. Not everywhere needs to be a forest.
The challenge is that we want cheap toilet paper etc.
So that europe is since the 1900 the most forested place in the world dont click with your statement here. U must be an early believer in climat crisis
@@robertpedersen6831you can use bamboo instead of trees for toilet paper. Bamboo grows at incredible speed
True. Trees dying due to drought damage and bark beetles was already a topic of discussion, when I was a teen in the 90s. This isn't coming as a surprise.
I live in New England in the U.S. and our forests are a mix of soft and hardwood. I own a fairly large forest and it’s a mix but it’s mostly oak, birch and maple. I don’t harvest any lumber. I have had multiple lumber companies want to harvest my lumber but I just let it grow. I did harvest some lumber about 30 years ago to build my home. I was very selective who I harvested my lumber. I also harvest some for firewood but I don’t cut healthy trees.
Thank you good sir !
Harvesting infrequently is the most healthy option for the forest. Harvest a few trees as they reach maturity and allow younger trees to replace them. This allows sunlight to reach the forest floor and create a multilayered canopy. "Old Growth" forests are unhealthy for much of the wildlife.
Yeah, that's good. But Germany is about half the size of any individual state of the USA but has a population of around 1/5th of the whole USA. Germany just can't have as many forests as the USA, so it just can't be compared.
Thank you sir ❤
new england white pine problems solved
Congratulation to the Harz forester, Roland Pietsch, not to fight the beetle! In the Taunus, Hesse, they came with harvesters, eliminated all trees, and damaged the thin soil in large scale. This is desert now.
Some parts look like meadows now though. But yea, much is deserted.
You can go and rebuild it if you are annoyed by it. Are you annoyed?
Yup first you couldn't recognize the places where you used to play as a kid but now as we started planting a new mix of local trees I'm stoked to see how much better it's going to turn out in a few years.
How can there be so many negative comments lamenting the dead trees when you can literally see grass and moss thriving in the same shot? They wouldn't even need to plant any new trees, nature is already reclaiming the land. In fact, the only thing that worries me is they are again planning to plant a bunch of non-native trees, as if nature is wrong and we must correct it.
Not doing anything and let nature take its course is not always beneficial. Stewardship and proper management can help preserve the forest. Aboriginal Americans used controlled burning to reduce damage by wildfires for thousands of years, for example.
that is the stupid arrogance of some humans....thinking they can control nature. then there are the evil ones that don't really want to control nature but make you afraid of climate change and get you to give them money so they can save you and really can't. you're poorer and no safer.
@@mhawang8204 Controlled burns are typically done to protect property in or near the woods rather than help nature. They wreaks havoc on insects and the understory in general. Sometimes they become necessary when people meddling with nature did something stupid, like plant eucalyptus in California.
Because obviously it's still a managed agricultural business, they clearly have no interest to let the area return to nature, it's all about the $$$. Quite frankly there would be nothing wrong with letting the beetles kill off the trees and start the nutrient cycle enriching the soil, and the dead trees are a valuable habitat for all sorts of organism in the mean time. But the land is just a farm to be managed and exploited one way or another.
maybe us running around doing silly things is just as natural as what happened before "naturally"? we ARE nature... just doing things a different way, spice it up a bit... everything, anything we do is just nature working in its own mysterious way... there is no "good" or "bad"... it just IS.
regards fires... i like to ponder about what our introduced weeds will evolve into... how will bamboo, privet, lantana, and camphr laurels deal with bushfires when theres no humans around anymore? all the fruit trees and ornamentals that we bought with us?
a couple of millenia of drought, fires, floods...
how the animals will change, with the foxes and canetoads and rabbits and cats and dogs and goats and horses and sheep and...
the sad part is contemplating how all those carefully bred and selected breeds and species will inevitably all be forgotten and fade into the depths of history...
Here in Ireland we have spruce monocultures and no bark beetle (yet) but already other species are being investigated, such as native species like birch, alder and Scots pine. We previously planted lots of native ash but that has been decimated since early 2010s due to ash die back, and native elm by Dutch elm disease! Diversity, breeding programs and better forestry practices will all help but definitely a big challenge.
The way the trees were planted also matters. If the saplings are grown without genetic variety, they will bring that genetic poverty with them and be more prone to disease.
It's explained in the video. The trees need water to produce enough sap to fight the beetles. Ireland has significantly more rain.
@@Psi-Storm more importantly, we don't have the bark beetle
Doubt you will have problems, unless you get some serious heat and drought. So sad, the state of ireland's forest in general. Either non-existent or monoculture, outside a few pockets.
@@Kfend19 Yet ...
In New Zealand exotic pine has been planted to offset carbon emissions and for the timber industry. These mono-culture plantations have cause extensive flooding where forestry waste has clogged streams and extensive landslides where planted on steep terrain.
This has resulted in pressure to replace the exotic pine with slower growing native trees that have evolved for our climatic conditions. I'm surprised that Germany is trialing a range of exotics instead of planting trees native to the area
We also need to experiment with new species.
Because climate is changing and will be even more different in 10years.
It s the shifting baseline. We won t go back to the 20th s climate, so natives might not be fit to be natives in 10years... Thus the need for experiments with more species.
The flooding isnt just due to the type of trees....it is due to logging and slack requirements around waste.
Other trees would have had the same issue if the industry is not properly supervised.
@@lazydaisee3997 We don't clear fell native trees.... anymore (in the last 100+ years following British rule/plunder)
Unfortunately pine trees have shallow root structures which makes plantations on steep topography susceptible to landslides. You can see the impact of this on areas of East Cape that were affected by last years floods.
With respect to harvesting practices; Mono-culture Eucalyptus plantation would also generate large volumes of slash if they were clear felled. The main difference is that the limbs of pine trees are trimmed throughout their lives to maximise the value of their wood. Eucalyptus is turned into pulp and so their plantations only generate large amounts of slash once
Because of climate change trees native to Germany might also go extinct here soon, that's why a wider range of species is planted, that those which adept best might thrive.
@@moos5221i live deep in the bush in canada. Trees re plant themselves when left alone, they seed like crazy. Let nature take care of itself, humans aren’t wise enough to
70 years ago in my country Croatia constructed drainage canals to drain swamps
Led to the lowering of the groundwater below the reach of the roots, which caused elm (Ulmus) to die out.
In 2009 I planted 2,15 hectares natural habitat of oak (Quercus robur) and ash tree (Fraxinus angustifolia). Later area was naturally infested with hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and now I have incredibly beautiful, precious, multicultural, healthy young forest, for future generations. Total investment was €22000. Can'f say how happy I am! It is a Project worth of living. ❤
It's an amazing life project for future generations! ❤
The spruce bark beetle has caused a spruce collapse in my area of Alaska. Hemlock, aspen and birch are holding strong. Now I have to just about clear cut my property to remove all the fire fuel. We have had a lot of snow and average rain. Yes, I will replant native white spruce and add a few more hemlock.
She states Douglas fir is hard… it indeed is NOT hard. The Douglas fir is used commonly in North America for framing houses and is most commonly milled into 2X4’s and used as studs as it is quick and easy to mill. It’s a soft wood that grows quickly and often has a pink hue. I am a carpenter and use Douglas fir a lot to make shop furniture and jigs because it’s easy to work with (because it’s soft) and it is cheap.
I think she meant a 'hardy' tree.
Douglas first are an horrendous choice for plantations in the Northeast USA, i cannot imagine being an any better choice for Northeastern Europe either. Frazier firs may be a better candidate if you insist on planting an alien species in EU
Doug fir commands a higher log price than true firs because of its strength in building. Generally 30% more in value.
I agree, and also thought it was a weird thing to say.
Most west coast commercial forests are being replanted in Douglass Firs. Mostly in a vast monoculture that does very little for wildlife.
12:37 ahhhhh….finally “biodiversity “ was dropped just in the nick of time. Why not address it as the story arc since the lack of it is what got the forests and the people to the present circumstances?
Yeah, the thing doing this is not Climate Change. This is just a natural cycle leveling out an overpopulated species. The fact that the overpopulated species is a badly placed and over-planted farm product is inconvenient for human agriculture is not a major tragedy. Humans are smart enough to make use of the dead wood, and where they don't, nature will.
'Artenvielfalt', the german Word used here, translates literally to "Variety Multiplicity" or "Species Multiplicity".
Because they need to push climate change
@@jannikheidemann3805 Ne, artenvielfalt und biodiversität sind das gleiche
@@user-kz7zp1xz6c Ja, weiß ich.
Artenvielfalt und Biodiversität sind Synonyme.
Das wollte ich darlegen, ohne es Nutzer az55544 auf die Nase zu binden.
I live in the southeastern United States.....and the pine beetle is hitting us bad. But when they die.....hardwoods take their place. That is much better for wildlife, lumber, and so on.
It's so interesting how mother nature replants her garden how she wants it.
Much of the southeastern USA was once prairie. It could not be documented a lot though since the camera had not been invented until when most of it was destroyed. There were also coastal pine savannas, (dominated by pine) and the pine would be thinned out by routine fire. So I don’t really think hard woods coming in should be celebrated for you depending on where you live.
@@frenchpotato2852 A pine forest is basically a wildlife desert. Not much underbrush.....and trees that don't produce anything that attracts good sized game.
@@09rjabut it wasn’t primarily a forest, it was a Savannah. The trees that grow in the savannahs never form a closed canopy and allow large open areas. These open areas are filled with wildflowers and large grasses. It was an ecosystem adapted to periodic fires, which have been long repressed, hence why it is nearly forgotten now and forests took over.
There is a great channel called “native habitat project” that covers this extensively, taking place in northern Alabama.
Encourage climate transition trees which can be (in some cases) appropriate hardwoods.
Most of us will probably not live long enough to see the final results, but this seems to be the best solution so far to repair what humanity has done to the forests.
What many might not know too is that the vast amount of now dead decaing trees will feed all the new trees. It will give a mager boost to the new plant and animal life in the forest.
@@nighthawk3045 I realized it. I stated "before" an old tree is dying some black great ants are coming. Than the tree has millions of blossoms and tiny fruits (looks like an umbrella) when work of who ever is finished, a normal wind is taking it to ground and either the roots are eaten up? or they rotten?
I removed the tree! Not better knowing at that time....
This year I saw a a big old ash (age unknown) on a sunny wintermorning exhaling through the bark. After some weeks it fell down.... almost silent. Same thing, roots cut off/eaten up, but this time no wind. Where I have tree stumps, the plants I placed show some kind of exorbitant growing. Black ants and insects I never saw before live there in perfect harmony.... The most strange thing is when I somtimes plant someting it seems to walk and looks for a better place or some plants take shelter 😀 in the shadow of other plants... as if the onions can also move 😀😃 and the ants are their Navigation System:)))) or Starlink Satellites in "outer space".
For not loosing "control" at the border I take pictures every year 🙃😊😇
Do you mean forests or man made fields of the same tree?
They have given wrong title to attract views. Non sense.
It's called an plantation, there are barely any forests left in Europe.
@@lubricustheslippery5028yeah that is really tragic, but i think rumania still has real forest
The German language does not use the word "Feld" (field) "Plantage" (plantation) in the context of trees. "Feld" would be for crops (wheat, corn, vegetables etc, but also meadows, grass, Alfalfa). "Plantage" for fruits (organes, apples, but also cotton). Unless you count "Kurzumtriebsplantagen" (short turnaround plantations) for "Energieholz" energy wood) which are field of rapidly growing woods/scrubs that are harvested about every 2 years (or sometimes up to 8 years) using forage harvesters.
The German language also distinguishes between "Wirtschaftswald" (managed forest) and "Urwald" (natural/primeval forest) under the umbrella term of "Wald" (Forest).
@@vivabratislava on the border of Poland and Belarus there is Białowieża forest, one of the last primeval forests in Europe.
My family has had a small timber farm in East Texas for generations. We tried Florida Slash Pine in the '50s because of it's rapid growth versus the native Loblolly. Big mistake. Between root fungus and Ips Pine Beetle I'd had enough in 2000 with a clear cut and went back to Loblolly on half the acreage. That stand is doing very well although still a monoculture. The other half of the farm I let go natural in 2015. It's presently dominated by Yaupon Holly but some trees like Sweetgum and Dogwood are raising their heads.
The poplar tree is a much underutilized tree. It grows very straight without anything or many branches at the bottom. It grows very quickly. I grew up in Northern Ontario. Now 69 years old. My father’s sawmill in the 1940’s to 1970’s produced Spruce and Jack Pine lumber.
My father said a number of times that poplar wood was in a number of ways better than spruce and pine. Like birch trees, poplar will rot very quickly in the bush when the bark is left on. However, when the poplar bark is taken off, it rots much slower than Spruce. When I was in my teens, he showed me a trappers log cabin which was over 50 years old at the time. The roof was collapsed and was just a shell of a building. But the poplar logs used for the walls were not rotten at all, even on the ground, because the bark had been taken off.
My dad made some lumber from poplar. He said it was much better for floor joists and house frames. The wood has a very straight grain and will never twist.
My dad made a large summer home made from poplar 75 years ago. My sister lives in that home year round that is in excellent condition.
The negative issue with poplar wood is that when cut down it is very heavy until it dries out. Then it is extremely light. It can be piled in the bush off the ground for a year to dry out. Or, can be cut while not dried out. The wood does not shrink.
The wood is softer when it comes to being more easily dinged when hit with something so makes a poor choice for furniture.
I suspect the reason for poplar being less expensive is due to how fast the tree grows. As well, I think much more wood can be harvested from an area given how close together the trees can grow.
Lots of antique furniture is made out of poplar and it is very durable, tulip tree and cotton woods are the most common ones we have in America and cottonwoods may not have as pretty of wood as tulip trees but they can grow in large swathes of land without planting. I think the future of house building is deciduous trees.
Poplar is more expensive than spruce or pine by a lot.
My brother had a pop house, my sister had one, my dad had one, my brother had one, my sister had 3. That’s all I heard when I read that was a bunch of bs.
@@francismarion6400 It is but it's way cheaper than oak or maple.
@@TheNightshadePrince I've never seen anyone use oak or maple for framing.
Well done story.
Additional points you missed:
* by cutting trees as they are infested, before they die you get better quality wood
* by cutting trees as they are infested, you break up the large single age stands into smaller stands of different ages. This can help act as fire breaks
* age diversity also can be better for animals by providing different types of food and ground cover in shorter travel distance.
Here in upstate New York, the emerald ash borer has recently decimated the beautiful ash trees of neighborhoods, parks, wild areas, and forests.😢
"Humans are impatient" is the core of the problem yep. And not only with that. We used to be more patient and think more generationally.
I don't think people in the past were intentionally more patient than people today. They were more patient because that was the only option. They simply did not have the industrial means to act impatiently.
Past people managed to cut down all trees in areas before
@@XGD5layer Like for example on the Easter Islands and Iceland.
@@jannikheidemann3805 And the Roman Empire.
@@stuartwithers8755idk. I feel like generally the industry and businesses are also getting more impatient. Everything nowadays is just to boost short term shareholder value, often seemingly sacrificing longterm investments and damaging the business. The line must go up
German native tongue. Nice to experience it the other way around sometimes!
They could dig swales, turn dead wood into woodchip to use it as mulch to save more water and create massive permaculture fields/gardens on the hills with a lot of biodiversity.
Sadly this is not going to happen cause they just wanna plant another monoculture...
Thank you. I like your thinking. Nature is not a problem here, but outdated, not sustainable farming/forestry practices.
As mentioned by one of the foresters, "we're impatient". The example of the oak taking centuries to grow: will humans still be around? Again, as mentioned we have commodified nature for profit. And yes, we are also 'a part' of Nature, but it's time that we recognised that we have long ago passed the Planet's "carrying capacity"...for humans.
The planet could sustain human life, even up to more than 10 billion people. But only if we lived sustainably - reusing, recycling, not buying 50 pieces of clothing in a year, not flying and not eating meat at our rate.
@@phoebeel I haven't bought 50 pieces combined over the last 5 years if not longer...
@@LiLBitsDK well done, but it's about the average. I think, in Europe it's about 50 pieces per person.
@@phoebeel then it's just a few people that keep the average high and we all know who they are and what gender... because it isn't men that spends a fortune on clothes every single month
@@LiLBitsDK why do you suddenly have to bring gender into it? So what women spend more on clothes, men drive around senselessly in their tuned cars. Both genders do shitty consumerist things
What makes trees resistant to pests is not being planted as a monoculture. Without variety there are no agents of balance.
In Malaysia and Indonesia it is oil palm, for some reasons the European treats it as different than their spruce forest.
Yes thank you!!! It’s a global problem, not that political party you hate! All the forests around the world are dying!
@@wawanmuldiantoro7159 "Double standard isn’t." Sort of like decrying cutting down trees while living in a wooden house.
Dengan melihat berita ini saya mengambil kesimpulan.. Bahwa DW sebagai kantor berita resmi pemerintah jerman dan dibiayai oleh pemerintah jerman seolah2 memberitakan bahwa kerusakan hutan diwilayah mereka akibat penanaman monokultur adalah baik bagi makhluk hidup dan bumi. Dan berita ini tidak menyebutkan tentang kesalahan pemerintah jerman apapun yang hutannya dikuasai para oligarki. Betapa munafiknya mereka.
The plant isn't the problem, the monoculture is. Plant oil palms in polyculture.
those weren’t forests, those were tree plantations.
Correct. There is no real ecosystem in those places.
Short, sweet, and accurate.
Still a forest
@@fischersfritz468 No not a forest.
@@Withnail1969 a tree- plantation is still a forest. Just not a natural forest
Good to see that sensible adaptations are being made.
What I like about evergreen forests is that ticks have issues to survive in the sour ground. But now these forests get slowly replaced by oaks, beeches etc., and ticks and Lyme disease and TBE are moving north
Totally. This happened to a piece of forest behind our grandma's house. We bought the land and are rewilding it now. The dead trees planted trees are giving way to so much life.
I took a cruise from Alaska to Vancouver last year and the trees looked fine. As you get into Canada you can see them harvesting trees on all the islands. They do it sustainably though.
Pine beetle infestations have devastated western Canada. A cruise ship isn't going to reveal to you the reality of this, these forests are inland. You're painting a portrait of forestry in Canada that's inaccurate.
As a non German living in Germany it is great to know the background of some of these issues...
But it is füll of nonsense
I lived in Germany many years, riding motorcycles on the amazing, perfect roads and hiking the Black Forest every day. The incredible foliage, high waterfalls and wildlife, just breathing the scented air are some of my best memories. I plan to visit again soon, but I will check my old routes first. If they are like that I will wait for new growth, call it denial but I don't want that to be my latest memory of the magic Black Forest.
Germany has transformed it's environment, switched the majority of fossil fuel energy to solar etc. They will take this on, heal and recover better forests, and probably help anyone they can do it too. They have politicians of all sides who see the need, and appreciate a beautiful environment.
Every time I talk to German friends about our beautiful countries, I tell them how lucky they are not to Suffer under a criminal anti-Earth Idiot, like our own diaper-rashed Traitor Trump.
@@bigblockjalopy why?
@@henningbartels6245so much, I wouldn't know where to start. I made some comments, that disappeared.
Bark Beetle infestation is more related to warm winters in Colorado and Wyoming, cold freezing cold is good regulator of bug infestation for same reason birds and bison migrate.
I don't know if the bark beetle has a natural enemy?
@@imtheeastgermanguy5431 Spruce bark resin in warm days. In rainforest bark latex aka rubber tires :) which is very gooey .
@@phyarth8082 yes I know that but I guess the beetle are faster in destroying the bark/tree than the tree actually can seal the holes. Also if it's too dry or hot than the trees are under stress as you probably know already. I think that we definitely need to think different for the future
@imtheeastgermanguy5431 The natural enemy of bark beetles are woodpeckers. They eat the beetle larvae. You see then everywhere in dying forests, but I their population takes years to grow large enough to stop a sudden beetle outbreak
Ireland is full of these monoculture spruce plantations and we have very little native forest left. It’s such a shame because the non-native monoculture plantations can’t support any native wildlife like squirrels, birds, small mammals etc. walking through them is eerie because they’re so quiet without birdsong
And Ireland has so little forest cover the begin with! 🤔
This video was super interesting! I visit the Harz mountains multiple times a year and I don't know how often I heard that "the Harz is dying" and that "the bark beetle is destroying the Harz", while it's actually just a natural and positiv progress that will hopefully lead to better forests in the future.
We can collect and breed seeds from native plants and help the ecosystems to recover much faster and more efficiently... we need big canopy trees, smaller trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers, climbers and fungi plus have to create dams and fishponds to store the rainwater and support wildlife and migrating birds
So you’re trying to say humans are smarter than nature….. man are you ever DELUSIONAL!!!!
Leaf area index (LAI) of Europe shows, there is 30% more vegetation now then 50 years ago. Also, due to increased CO2 levels, plants today need 40% less water than 50 years ago. As a consequence Europe's entire biosphere has increased significantly. If this is a "crisis", we need more of it.
Well, 50 years ago we had socialism is half of Europe. It is indeed true that the end of socialism was good for the environment.
Socialism is coming back fast in Western Europe and America. To be precise socialist totalitarian regime with private enterprise. Just like in the 1930’s Germany. Leftist people are really not very smart.
Thing is you have to make the difference between the LAI and plant diversity why is far lower than it was 50 years ago
That’s is the wrongest statement I saw in months I don’t know where to start
@@omnirath Cognitive dissonance to claim declining biodiversity, in a system, which is growing explosively. Almost certainly, most existing species are increasing in individual headcount as well as new species emerging in freshly opened niches. You should read on the subject of "CO2 fertilization". It's all good news.
In Sweden we are still hellbent on clear-cuts and plant spruce mono-cultures with as narrow genetics pool as possible. What could go wrong?
The pine beetle is a real pest in Canada. In BC we plant pine trees which has been hit hard by the beetle. There are vast tracks of dead trees. We are now trying to make mixed forests that are more native to the area. Also we are using native practice of controlled burns.
DW Planet A, vielen Dank wie immer 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
In himalayas we have problem of pine tree monoculture. It just fucks up the whole ecosystem diversity and also dries the land.
You are doing what Israel did 20 years ago... We had the same problem with pines, so now we plant a lot more diversity of trees
In the national park "Bayerischer Wald" the transformation has already happened. The spruce trees have already dies off 20 years ago. In the area around the mountain 'Lusen' the is now an incredible young multicultur forest.
exactly the same on our side of the border with "Sumava" national park. czde
Key word multicultur , sounds familiar?
It is a good perspective not to always look at things from the negative side, but also to see the opportunities for the future in changes. That's why I really like this post. It's a very sad sight to see a dying forest, but as described in the film, it only takes a few years for a new forest to emerge. Nature heals itself, but forestry and its intervention is still very important. As can be seen in the film, tree species that are not native to Germany are already growing there, grow very quickly and spread incredibly quickly and deprive the slower-growing, native tree species of their livelihood. These introduced tree species have to be painstakingly removed by the forestry industry in order to give the forest a chance to grow with native wood again. So it doesn't work entirely without people, after all, people are also responsible for the fact that tree species that are not native here have come to Germany.
"We screwed it all up the first time but by golly we'll get it right this time". Uh-huh. And in 50 years people will see what we've done today and say "what were they thinking?"
I was biking through Germany two years ago when it was still fresh. When the trees weren’t grey yet. It looked terrible. But if it’s healing, it’s really good news ❤
Great informative video!
Thank you 🤞
Just goes to show that there's still a lot of lacking public education on how healthy ecosystems work and how they renew themselves naturally (not to mention help stabilise local soils and hydrology), if only people let them.
It is füll of nonsense
Fantastic information, as always. I find it curious @9:22 how tracks are made up/down the hill - probably for stability of harvesting equipment? Otherwise I would have done it along contour lines, as to catch water after rainfall events. This way, it's more of a ravine through which the water can wash away soil that's no longer help together by roots.
You are right, but it's only the peak of the mountain of the problem. After harvesting the trees:
-> heavy rain takes away top soil
-> lower areas (often urban) are flooded
-> less water retained and percolated to water table / aquifers
-> in the summer low level or dry rivers
-> low levels of ground water
-> deeper wells further lowering water table and destroying aquifers
So it's a chain of events, and floods, droughts are blamed by mass media and politicians on CO2 related climate change.
Yes. But not just the politicians and the oil industry. It's also a problem for the "man in the street", who sees the need for change as a threat to his style of life.
Finally, an environment/climate change related video that's not all alarmist gloom-and-doom!!
Climate change is not a fairy tale which has nice stories. It's reality so there are more bad news.
Good content. Our german friends are also kindly invited to walk in the forests of France to confirm their studies.
Our forest are statisticaly increasing their surface area since two decades while experiencing the climate evolutions too.
Our national parks have also a variety of different caracteristics accross the country. Bonus : nature did part of its own sélection in most areas.
From hot Mediterranean zones, elevated altitudes, cold area, all make a complete panel and probably has a lot of what should be the german climate in a few decades.
Wishing Germany a successfull path to these adaptations 👍
We have the same issue here in the Czech republic but it was due to spruce planting i the 1800s and now many forests are so vulnerable due to the bark beetle. Now the replanting is more calculated by adding more leafy trees that are more natural for this area and create mixed spruce max 30 percent along side other types of trees for healthier forests
You know we’re done for when they start planting Eucalyptus
Yup,
That tree is a certifiable Pyromaniac!
they make an amazing wild fire thats for sure and Portugal wonder why they have so many wildfires... all the while, they keep planting Eucalyptus all over the place...
An excellent reason to leave mother nature alone. It's tiring to keep seeing stories of man "knowing better". Fact is man is clueless. Nature has it's own scheme for nature.
Biodiversity to me means wilding the forest with native trees and plant species, not importing more.
and animal species that we have caused to go extinct in those areas... so large grazers/browsers, pigs, wolves, bears etc. etc. (depending on the area) even if it means loss of "mountainbike trails" and whatever other silly stuff people complain about losing... NATURE NEED SPACE...
I follow this approach in my mothers forests since about 12 years now when I started to take care of it. I mostly plant oak and acorn, but also other species. Lovely to see it on a greater scale!
2:24 It looks like a forest. But this is no forest, it is an industrial plantation.
What about the places where all the native trees are being taken out by the beetle, such as Colorado, etc.? What do you replace them with?
Call it what you want, for me this video is a propaganda pice.
@@karlschmid6961 how?
Spruce is native to Germany
enjoyed watching cheers !
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Pawlonia. Ailanthus. Judged as „invasive“, but heartily greens the land.
Logging and control burn fires create healthy forests. Plain and simple. Clear cutting is necessary for wildlife conservation for species like deer who are fringe habitat animals. Dead, standing trees can be cut and used. Its a problem of waste an laziness. Leave it to Germany...
The national park covers only a tenth of the Harz mountains, in many areas around the prospects of rejuvenation look way less auspicious, the soils are just too dried out, the replacing vegetation cannot really stop that.
"How dare you!" Is this a management thing? Most of the forest fires in the U.S. are caused by poor undergrowth management, et al, too much fire suppression contributing to a buildup of tinder.
Management is always part of the problem, but this is happening all over the world. And it’s not just the trees! But most people want to blame it on the local politicians, and ignore the world is facing a much bigger problem.
Online info tells the California wild fires have been extant for over 100 years with little change.
@@senatorjosephmccarthy2720 well, I guess if there was a forest fire a hundred years ago, everyone that has been evacuated year after year for the last ten years should just quit crying. Apparently it’s always been this way. But for some reason our parents and grandparents just forgot fleeing their homes every summer. I’m sure as Florida disappears into the sea, there will still be people saying high tide is a natural phenomenon.
@@El-Comment-8-or Wow, I felt you slap the 'senator' from here... ouch !
I never seen a TH-cam channel with two languages before. I understand both but I think it would be annoying for people that only understand one.
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As someone who only took 1 year of German 40 years ago, I found it easy to understand with subtitles turned on. There was even an onscreen notice to turn on subtitles..
I’m bilingual but don’t understand German. I don’t find these videos annoying.
DW produces good journalism videos about the world.
Auto-translated subtitles works a treat :) I know 🇱🇻, 🇬🇧 and 🇷🇺 poorly.
Not annoying! Just either do or don't caption, I am used to turning on captions, but if there are already captions showing up randomly it gets difficult.
The way she spoke about the bark beetle I compared it to a narcissist that comes , Eats and Gone. Fascinating
Lots of human beings are like this beetle.
@@jamesr1703 Humans have the conscious capacity to choose that behavior or choose to change thier behavior.
And they can be convinced by fellow humans to change thier behavior for the better.
Beetles can not do so.
It's important to not forget
that when making comparisons
likening humans to parasites,
so that we
don't treat humans like parasites
and give them choices
to not behave like parasites.
I visited the Harz Mountains a couple of months ago to ride the steam railway. I was shocked to see the barren wilderness, but am now pleased that all is not lost. The forcing of non-native species is always bad, so to get back to more natural species has to be better.
Finally someone saying let nature be nature! Nature is smarter than us. It knows what it is doing. Just because we don't understand it doesn't mean it is bad. What a breath of fresh air!
potatoes are great!
I've seen the effects of the pine beetles in BC in Canada. Now the forests are on fire too and wood has become expensive. We sell pine beetle affected wood though for a premium. At least it's being used a bit.
I'm hoping we get more local trees in our forests.
Surely digging lots of ponds (or swales) will help defend against drought, and limit the risk of wild fire?
im 79 grand papy said when i was 10 years old
at the time we were cutting and clearing an area
when it was replanted (1955) he said these trees will ready when you are older than me
he passed at 75 , im 79.
now these trees 70 years later are now ready for harvesting and a replant.
Trees take centuries to migrate with shifts in climate but we are now asking them to do it in decades
I've seen it in western Germany as well, and it was quite obvious that the vast majority of dead trees were spruces. Everything around was green. And even in those forests that were still alive, the floor in the broadleaf parts was black, moist, occasionally even still had puddles on the paths, while the spruce parts were beige or grey, bone dry. Perfect for erosion, especially once the trees are gone, and probably contributing quite a bit to the recent floodings if the forests can hardly retain any water
What is Western Germany? Sauerland? Eifel?
U.S. and Canada Data
In the U.S., total forest area increased by 18 million acres between 1990 and 2020, which averages out to the equivalent of around 1,200 NFL football fields every day. Canada's total forest area remained relatively stable over the 30-year assessment period at approximately 857 million acres.
A monoculture of trees is to a forest what a field of wheat is to grasslands.
Exactly. This is not 'forestry management', this is ruthless exploitation of land with no respect for the realities of nature.
Tolle Reportage wie üblich. Da in Österreich ist die Situation ähnlich.
Danke aus (endlich!) regnerischem Wien, Scott
Very interesting. The whole world should take these studies about forests, forestry, and adaptations to climate change to minimize natural disasters. Thank you!
5:15 to clarify not to criticise what the forester said: The beaker contains 2000 bugs (50ml x 40 bugs at 40 bugs an ml), not the trap.
The trap in the video is filled at a quarter of its volume. Its volume is unknown to me, but looks like a 1 liter or 1.5. Each pair produces up to 100k new bugs a year.
It would be interesting to know how many trees filled the trap like that during what time.
I think this problem with spruce monoculture showed many years ago during the windstorm in Slovakian High Tatras. It took High Tatras several years to get a certain diversified tree coverage again, but I think finally it doesn't look like a "moonscape"
In midwestern USA, we have Emerald Ash Borer that targets Ash trees in a similar way. The Ash trees in my area are all dying. I just helped cut down 7 of them in my neighbors yard, and I have 4 dead or dying trees in my yard! But these Ash trees are planted as shade trees, not in plantations for commercial logging.
Exactly the same in British Columbia. So many of the ancient forests have been replaced with tree farms which, as you say, are quite boring. Especially compared to the majestic old growth forests. This practice continues today, and because of lobbying, it will likely continue for the foreseeable future.
They make forests full of one type of tree, leaving nothing to grow on and are suprised forest is randomly dying. I'm happy we got one big ancient forest in Poland and many of other wild (albeit younger for various reasons) forests.
We have exactly the same monicultures in Poland. What Poland do you live in...
One of the most beautifully crafted good-news stories I've watched, makes me happy
Unfortunately, after a wildfire here, the forest service planted two million spruce in the burn scar, reflexively.
I love that they are trying to fix our forests, but if im honest, i dont think we should bring trees to a forest that don't belong there. just plant native trees like mother nature intended to❤
Thanks for this beautiful documentary and some good news!
Y'all need to get some Georgia pine (Pinus strobus, I think). It's hearty and heat/drought tolerant. I'm pretty sure they don't mind the frost and winter. They thrive in the mountains here.
Unfortunately, the invasive pine trees that grow like twigs have displayed the true GA pine. Come get some while they still have pinecones.
Also, it's disturbing seeing this much of the forests in such a state. Pleases continue to grow a variety of trees and allow nature to heal itself. German forests are so beautiful when they had diverse tree and medows. Miss that place so much. Hopefully, I can return one day.
What a positive video this is! Thank you to everyone working on improving forests!
This was very interesting, and somewhat hopeful.
With regard to selecting new species to introduce in that area, I would have liked to hear more discussion of not only the trees' inherent characteristics, but how they fit in with the wider environment, with species of animals/insects that depend on specific environmental characteristics for their survival. The question ought not to be only about whether the trees can survive, but whether the whole ecosystem can thrive with the replacement of old species by new ones that have different qualities.
Those aren’t wild forests. There’s no such thing as forests in Europe anymore. All the trees were cut down a very long time ago. All Europe has now are tree farms. Tree farms are planted all with the same species close together. That’s why disease, fire and bark beetles kill the tree farms. A healthy, natural forest that is managed properly does not die off like this.
Thanks for this good news! I never liked these monoculture forests, they always looked pale and artificial to me. Even though it will take a long time, this forest will be better off in the future. Sometimes old things have to die for the new thing to prosper.
It rains almost every day in Harz mountains, there are barely a couple of weekends/year when it's sunny and possible to go there for a weekend. I've never seen in being very dry.
As if we haven't learned from previous times. Hands off ... let nature do its thing and it will be cheaper, more efficient and healthier than whatever mankind (or AI) can do.
It seems like the foresters around the world really need to start (if they aren't already) collaborating and sharing information and strategies about dealing with these changes. I live in the NW United States and our forests are currently being ravaged by the beetles. Be it the Pine Bark beetle or the Ash beetle. So this is hardly a localized epidemic. I also found it interesting that the Douglas Fir is being considered as they're struggling here on the West Coast. The beetles are making great strides in wiping out the forests due to the climate changes weakening the trees.
This has been happening in America for decades.
Here in the US SW poor forest management has increased wildfires. Droughts are cyclic and evidences shows they have happened in the past and some were much worse. The bark beetle naturally infects trees here when a tree is struck by lighting which opens a crack or a branch breaks due to a previous winters heavy snowfall. An infected tree shows up when the outside bark get a green fungus growth that comes out of the beetles guts. During droughts some trees succumb to the lack of sap flow compromised by the beetles.
The bad news is that the dead trees are not "cleaned". Branches MUST be removed and the tree cut down in length. Otherwise, the woopeckers will not create nests in them. And that means the secondary nesters will not have trees to nest in. And you need to plant ducidious trees to provide for birds nesting in those kind of trees.
Soft wood trees like spruces take a looooooong time to decompose. That is bad because they will never become suitable for small woodpeckers and tits. All important for the defence of the forest.
Norway have had its bark beetle wars. There is even a popular song about it.
Well, anything that helps tits grow I'm all for.