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There are two bits of information that the article omits. Large chunks of the Harz forest are a nature reserve and only limited action will be taken, for exampl

There are two bits of information that the article omits. Large chunks of the Harz forest are a nature reserve and only limited action will be taken, for example planting seedlings. Pesticides won’t be used in those zones - the only action that will be taken is a safety corridor around those zones. The spruce forests that grow there are not the original forest - they were planted to get access to cheap lumber for mining operations, sometimes on terrain unsuitable to spruce. Most of them were planted after WW2. Here‘s an article that goes into a little more detail (in german, from the nature park administration) https://www.nationalpark-harz.de/de/der-nationalpark-harz/waldentwicklung/ https://www.nationalpark-harz.de/de/der-nationalpark-harz/wa...

__jonas 3y ago
An interesting case study about this is the Bavarian Forest National Park. In the 80s, several major storms caused a huge amount of trees to die, and there was a decision made to not intervene in the forest ecosystem and leave the dead trees instead of removing them. Then in the 90s because of this and other reasons that created a favorable environment for the bark beetles, there was a massive spread of them and large parts of the forest died. The national park management continued the policy of not intervening in the forest ecosystem, which was met by pretty heavy criticism from parts of the population. However it seems to have worked out in the end, as the forest is now starting to regenerate. There is a decent summary on the German Wikipedia page here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalpark_Bayerischer_Wald#Der_Borkenk%C3%A4fer_im_Nationalpark https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalpark_Bayerischer_Wald#...
deleted 3y ago
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