3 ms·

This is really interesting to hear because it correlates with what I’ve learnt about the mountain area I’ve grew up in, south of Poland. The end of 1800s came w

This is really interesting to hear because it correlates with what I’ve learnt about the mountain area I’ve grew up in, south of Poland. The end of 1800s came with sawmills and extensive deforestation by the then governing Austrian Habsburg dynasty. At the time completely cut down forests were seeded with pines. Fast forward ~150 years, there’s now continuos effort to recreate a former deciduous canopy, due to the pines beeing more susceptible to disease and weak. And its really marvelous to compare old photos of dark green swaths of land during autumn to the yellow gold brown palette of nowadays.

meibo 5y ago
Same thing in Germany, after WW2 and the boom and rebuilding thereafter, a lot of forests are pure pine forests since they grow very quickly and provided the wood for the country. Sadly, that lead to a lot of forests all over the country losing their beautiful biodiversity that you can e.g. find in the black forest. Nowadays they're also often diseased, as you said, and you can see whole blocks of forest being torn down to contain the spread.
- flohofwoe 5y ago
  In some regions - like Saxony - mono-culture reforesting to spruce forests had already started in the 18th century (after the Ore Mountains had been pretty much deforested by centuries of mining operations). Thankfully the forests are now slowly transitioned away from the mono-cultures. But I guess spruce forests are overall better than no forests at all.
cratermoon 5y ago
The western US and particularly the Pacific NW has the same issue. Widespread clearcutting of mixed forests followed by planting a monoculture of quick-growing conifers. Fast forward 100 to 150 years and some of those conifer crops were cut down for cheap lumber and replanted, again with the same conifers. And then the Dendroctonus spp. showed up.

3 ms·

This is really interesting to hear because it correlates with what I’ve learnt about the mountain area I’ve grew up in, south of Poland. The end of 1800s came w

by skatanski 5y ago

meibo 5y ago
Same thing in Germany, after WW2 and the boom and rebuilding thereafter, a lot of forests are pure pine forests since they grow very quickly and provided the wood for the country. Sadly, that lead to a lot of forests all over the country losing their beautiful biodiversity that you can e.g. find in the black forest. Nowadays they're also often diseased, as you said, and you can see whole blocks of forest being torn down to contain the spread.
- flohofwoe 5y ago
  In some regions - like Saxony - mono-culture reforesting to spruce forests had already started in the 18th century (after the Ore Mountains had been pretty much deforested by centuries of mining operations). Thankfully the forests are now slowly transitioned away from the mono-cultures. But I guess spruce forests are overall better than no forests at all.
cratermoon 5y ago
The western US and particularly the Pacific NW has the same issue. Widespread clearcutting of mixed forests followed by planting a monoculture of quick-growing conifers. Fast forward 100 to 150 years and some of those conifer crops were cut down for cheap lumber and replanted, again with the same conifers. And then the Dendroctonus spp. showed up.