Donation campaign: hotspot area in the Harz

The Harz was parti­cu­larly affected by the extreme drought of recent years, with its large stand-off-site spruce stands. Large areas of forest died off and now need our swift support so that they can quickly become a climate-resilient and future-proof forest ecosystem again.

At present, it is assumed nation­wide that forest dieback has affected an area of 500,000 hectares as a result of the drought years, with around 90 percent of the damaged timber consis­ting of conife­rous wood, predo­mi­nantly spruce.

In the Harz, two thirds of the spruce trees on around 21,000 hectares have now died. So far, only just under 1,000 hectares of forest have been replanted each year. The remai­ning areas, mostly comple­tely cleared to prevent the further spread of the bark beetle or the outbreak of fires, left the soil unpro­tected. Wind erosion, humus deple­tion and drying out greatly reduced the soil’s water reten­tion capacity and also have a negative effect on biodi­ver­sity and the surroun­ding forest areas.

Support us now with your tree donation, to reforest it with a rich variety of species now.