Since 2017, drought and bark beetle infesta\u00adtion have caused the death of more than 900,000 hectares of woodland nation\u00adwide \u2013 mostly non-native and monos\u00adtruc\u00adtured conifer forests \u2013 as shown by the satel\u00adlite data from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) published in September 2025. Until now, the assump\u00adtion had been 500,000 hectares of damaged area.<\/p>\n
Today, the Harz is one of Germany\u2019s most severely affected forest regions. Large stands of non-native spruce have not withs\u00adtood the extreme periods of drought in recent years. On around 21,000 hectares, two thirds of the spruce have now died. Although new areas are reforested every year, this is only a small start in relation to the scale of the damage. Many areas have also been comple\u00adtely cleared to contain the bark beetle and prevent fires \u2014 leaving behind unpro\u00adtected soil exposed to sun, wind and rain. Wind erosion, loss of humus and drying out are now threa\u00adtening the soil\u2019s water-reten\u00adtion capacity and desta\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adsing the green water cycle. It is there\u00adfore all the more urgent to reforest quickly.<\/p>\n
For several years now, our associa\u00adtion has been supporting fores\u00adters in replan\u00adting the hotspot areas in the northern Harz near the Grane\u00adtal\u00adsperre reser\u00advoir, in the southern Harz near the reser\u00advoir by Neustadt, as well as near Werni\u00adge\u00adrode and Ilsen\u00adburg, with site-appro\u00adpriate deciduous tree species. Thanks to numerous donations, many thousands of deciduous trees have already been planted. On numerous hectares of damaged area, the founda\u00adtion has thus been laid for climate-resilient and future-proof mixed deciduous forests \u2014 forests that will provide future genera\u00adtions not only with timber, but also water, biodi\u00adver\u00adsity and fertile soils.<\/p>\n
But the work is far from done. Many areas are still waiting to be reforested, and at least once a year we are on site to reforest damaged areas in the Harz together with many supporters.<\/p>\n
It is especi\u00adally important to us to involve school classes as well. After all, the future of these forests concerns the younger genera\u00adtion in parti\u00adcular. During planting activi\u00adties, pupils experi\u00adence first-hand what forests mean in the context of climate change \u2014 and why it is so valuable to support close-to-nature forest conver\u00adsion and thus climate-resilient forest ecosys\u00adtems. Accom\u00adpanying environ\u00admental educa\u00adtion makes it clear that we need not only timber, but also fertile soils, clean water and biodi\u00adver\u00adsity. The bare slopes in the Harz are an impres\u00adsive place of learning that moves people and prompts reflec\u00adtion.<\/p>\n
Your donation helps create species-rich forests in the Harz and enables young people to take respon\u00adsi\u00adbi\u00adlity today for the forest of tomorrow.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seit 2017 sind durch D\u00fcrre und Borkenk\u00e4ferbefall bundesweit mehr als […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hotspots"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n