On August 19th, 2016, we were invited to Kelheim by the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise (BaySF). After having heard a lot about Austrian forestry beforehand, we were excited to get an introduction to German and especially Bavarian forestry as well.
BaySF manages over 800 000 ha and is the largest forest enterprise in Germany. While visiting the forest district Kelheim, we learned about the organisation of the enterprise, its efforts at close-to-nature silviculture and its nature conservation projects. We even got to see an operating harvester and forwarder!
After a delicious lunch, we talked about beech forest management. We were especially fascinated by Ludwigshain, an oak forest with an area of 3 ha. It was turned into a protection zone 100 years ago, because king Ludwig was amazed by the old, impressive oaks. However, as beech is the most competitve tree species in the area, oaks are disappearing and the stand is slowly changing into a beech stand.
Thank you for presenting forestry in Bavaria to us, we thoroughly enjoyed the day at the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise!
IFSS 2016 