In the Bavarian state forest, many thousands fewer trees will be felled this year due to the slump in residential construction. The planned felling of softwood will be reduced by 600,000 solid cubic meters or 20 percent in the 2024 financial year, the state forest administration announced on Friday in Regensburg.
“The economic skid marks, especially in the construction industry in Germany, are also having an effect on the demand for wood. The state forests are now reacting to this by reducing the supply of fresh spruce and pine,” said a spokesman.
On 720,000 hectares of state forest, which corresponds to almost ten percent of the country’s area, around six million cubic meters of wood grow back every year. Spruce, pine and other conifers grow on two-thirds of the area, and beech trees on a fifth of the area. The state forests generate a good 90 percent of their annual turnover of around 400 million euros from the sale of wood.