Deadwood

The term "deadwood" covers a wide variety of structures: depending on the tree species, whether standing or lying, freshly dead or already decayed, thick or thin, exposed to sunlight or not, microhabitats and niches of the most diverse kinds are created on the individual piece of deadwood.

Countless creatures have adapted to living in and on dead wood or have made it part of their habitat. Deadwood is therefore one of the ecologically most important structural elements of our forests. In Central Europe, for example, around 1,350 species of beetles that live in and decompose dead wood and around 1,500 species of large fungi live in and on dead wood. Amphibians (great crested newt, fire salamander) use the damp, musty environment of fallen trees as a daytime hiding place and hibernation site. The wildcat raises its young in the protected interior of hollow trunks.

The municipal forestry office has long supported the formation of standing and lying deadwood in the forest, which was positively noted in our FSC audit. It also happens that not every log in the forest is sold as firewood and the forest leaves a rather untidy impression. This is not due to negligence on the part of the forester, but to conscious forest maintenance. The forest has its own rules of order!