Climate change threatens forests: Experts warn of spruce deaths!

Climate change threatens forests: Experts warn of spruce deaths!

On April 22, 2025, the annual general meeting of the Wald owner Association Weilheim took place, in which the central theme of the event was the forest conversion and the reaction to climate change. The guest speaker Randolf Schirmer, deputy head of the Bavarian Office for Forest genetics, urged the effects of climate change on the forests in the Alpine foothills. In particular, the pictures he presented from the Thuringian Forest showed devastating dry areas that illustrate a worrying development.

Schirmer encouraged the forest owners to refrain from the traditional spruce planting. As a suitable alternative, he recommended American Douglasia (green Douglasia) as well as domestic deciduous woods such as field maple, fluff oak, Orient beech and tree hazel. The challenge of access to seeds, especially when it comes to the Orient book, was also addressed. This problem is of great importance in connection with the urgently needed forest conversion. A report on the forest conversion and a forestry report from 2024, created by Kilian Voice, Marco Walbrecker and Lisa Schubert, comprehensively the challenges and perspectives in the region.

Financial situation and number of members

The financial situation of the forest owner association shows a positive trend with income of 347,890 euros and expenses of 308,115 euros. The number of members is 1,174, with an average forest area per member of 8.28 hectares. With regard to the marketing of long wood, the union can record an increase: 2,683 festival meters were marketed in 2024, in the previous year there were 1,736 festival meters. This indicates a growing activity in wood recycling.

the beaver and its effects

Another topic of conversation was the role of the beaver, which some participants called the "greatest illegal wood". In this context, the proposal was made to include the beaver in hunting law in order to better control the damage that he causes on forests.

In addition, in a comprehensive analysis of the forest floors, various locations and climatic information about tree species were summarized. This data outlines important parameters such as the annual average temperature, the annual precipitation amount and the floor PH value. However, it was noted that it is unclear whether the pH values ​​are to be interpreted as a PH (H2O) or PH (KCL) values ​​and that the floor depth was not documented, which could make the comparability of the values ​​more difficult. Such uncertainties can have an impact on the selection of suitable tree species and affect the efficiency of the forest redevelopment [waldwissen.net reports that].

The growing realization that climate change can no longer be ignored leads to an increased discussion about alternative tree species and sustainable forestry. Against this background, the forest owner association Weilheim has set itself the task of extensively accompanying the news and developments in forestry and making it accessible to its members [merkur.de