Status: 08/10/2022 7:29 p.m
The trunks are charred, the forest floor is sooty: the fires of the past few weeks have destroyed large areas of pine. This can also be an opportunity for forest conversion – but it takes time.
It still smells burnt when you enter the forest near Beelitz-Heilstätten in Brandenburg. The fire brigade left here a good five weeks ago. For two weeks it had burned in an area of 200 hectares. At first glance, the forest doesn’t look too dramatic.
The trees are still standing. But the trunks of the pines are charred and the forest floor is sooty black. Sooner or later the pines will die off. Because the fire has attacked the trees so badly that they can no longer absorb water and nutrients.
Plants use water reserves
A devastating result for the deputy forest fire protection officer and forester Phillipp Haase. But nature is already fighting back, just a few weeks after the fire. It is mainly the deciduous trees that are growing again. “The charred birch tries to sprout again from below. And as we can see, they are doing this very successfully, even though we haven’t had any rain here in the last few weeks,” says Haase. “The last available water reserves are used here for new growth.” However, the pines were finally destroyed.
Ferns and grasses have also worked their way through the charred ground – even though it has hardly rained here since the fire. After a forest fire, the ecosystem is initially set back to the beginning, says Christiane Schröder from NABU Brandenburg.
Biologist Christiane Schröder in the forest fire area near Beelitz-Heilstätten. There was a fire here five weeks ago.
Image: RBB
Little rain makes regeneration more difficult
Many creatures did not survive the fire. Above all, small animals such as shrews or sand lizards, of which there are many here in the pine forests, fell victim to the fire. But individual beetles, spiders and wood ants are back. “Depending on how hot it got and how quickly the fire spread, they could have survived in the lower layers,” says the biologist from NABU.
The wildlife is only returning hesitantly, also because it has hardly rained in the past few weeks. “In addition to the fire, it is also far too dry, so that repopulation is taking place under difficult conditions.”
There was a fire here four years ago. A new ecosystem has now emerged. Mainly deciduous trees such as birch and poplar grow here.
Image: RBB
Another ecosystem emerges
Two kilometers away you can see how nature can change after the restart. There was a fire in this area four years ago.
Today there are man-high birches and young poplars. After the fire, the burned pines were removed. A completely different ecosystem was created in the open space. “What we have here in the area are many ground-nesting bird species that we no longer find in the forest. You can see locusts if you walk across the area, you just don’t find them in the forest with the variety of species.” A new forest is emerging. But that takes time, says forester Phillipp Haase. “Forest conversion is not a three- or five-year task, but a generational task.”
NABU therefore calls for future-proof concepts when it comes to forest conversion. In addition to various types of deciduous trees, there is also a need for fire extinguishing ponds in the forest or edges and hill structures that allow animals to retreat. Then a forest fire could also be an opportunity, according to the expert. But the opportunity must also be recognized as such by people.