“If there is firewood somewhere in the forest, it will also be bagged.” This is how Werner Fauth, chairman of the Ebersberg/Munich Ost forest owners’ association, describes the problem. One that did not start for the forest farmers with the current high energy costs. “It has always existed – but with the rise in firewood prices it has simply increased.”
By how much, that can only be guessed at, a recently published projection by the forest owners’ association AGDW assumes half a percent to two percent of the annual felling. Nationwide, this causes damage amounting to several million euros per year. And the high price of wood drives this damage even higher: according to AGDW, a solid meter of wood cost between 60 and 70 euros last year, but currently it is already 100 to 200 euros. According to AGDW, small quantities in particular would be stolen.
Unfortunately, firewood theft is nothing new for Werner Fauth, chairman of the Ebersberg/Munich-Ost forest owners’ association.
(Photo: Angelika Bardehle)
Fauth also confirms this. He is not aware of a case in which someone drove into the forest with a large trailer and loaded someone else’s wood, “that would be far too obvious”. It’s also almost never the case that someone unpacks the saw: “What doesn’t do any work is stolen.” Because with a little work you can still get firewood very cheaply, according to the forest owner chairman. For a small fee you can make wood yourself in many private forests.
The classic wood theft, on the other hand, is done in the truest sense of the word in passing: people walk through the forest, sow the wood along the way and fill their trunks. The mostly well-developed forest paths also made it easy for the thieves, says Fauth, so the trip is immediately combined with an illegal procurement of firewood. Which, he is convinced, did not come out of a real emergency. His impression: “It’s the ones who don’t need it.”
Such cases also occasionally occur in the state forests, forester Josef Nagler confirms. He could not confirm that wood theft had increased in the past few months – but in the long term it did. “Basically, the attitude towards third-party property has changed,” says Nagler, but this is more a long-term trend than the current energy crisis. Frauke Holland, service point manager at the Wasserburg forestry company, has not received any increased theft figures from the state forests either.
Josef Nagler from the Bavarian State Forests can also confirm occasional loss of firewood.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Nagler does not rule out that the wood theft could increase in the cold months, but warns potential thieves: “Every theft will be reported.” At least if the wood thieves are caught red-handed. Because that’s what usually fails when firewood gets lost somewhere, says Fauth: “The clear-up rate is zero.”
Finding the thieves is not easy
On the one hand, this is due to the difficulty of the proof. No forest owner can guard his stacks of firewood in the forest – although some have now hung up wildlife cameras next to them. However, this often leads to problems with data protection – if the person in the photos can be identified at all. Last but not least, the effort involved in filing a complaint – unfavorably one against an unknown person – is considerable, Fauth continues. The loss of earnings due to this loss of time is then usually higher than the value of the stolen wood.
Ulrich Milius, Head of the Ebersberg Police Inspectorate, also confirms that firewood theft is not one of the crimes that are reported particularly often. In the past few months, there has not been a single corresponding report, according to the police chief. However, the topic is definitely on the screen, the reports about increased wood theft are also not unknown to the police.
There is really only one thing left for forest owners to do to protect their wood from unauthorized removal – to remove it themselves. “You have to get the wood out of the forest as quickly as possible,” says Fauth. Once the firewood was stored in a fenced area, the thefts stopped.