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The forest is silent.
No wind blows.
It's neither unbearably hot
nor piercingly cold.
The air is comfortably humid,
the light subdued.
The forest,
in prehistoric times
was the home of dark powers.
Todays it is as important for the mental health and the economy of
industrialised nations
as it is for the environment
now even more than in the past.

Until the middle of the 18th century the forest was the most important source for raw materials. Wood was irreplaceable as a building material and a source off energy generation. Therefore, this era is also called the wooden epoch. In most cases, the badly needed timber was harvested without taking care for its replacement. Along with the evolving industrialisation in the 18th and 19th centuries large parts of the forest were devastated.

Hence, the task during the next century was the reforestation of the deforested areas, which was performed mostly with conifers. The regrowth of broad-leaved trees on the heavily damaged soils turned out to be difficult. The wood supply needed for was achieved by fast-growing coniferous tree species. These 100-year-old forest-stands now provide outstanding, large-diameter timber, representing most important asset for the forest enterprises of today.
Nowadays, forestry is concerned with the planting of mixed stands, ensuring a balanced ecosystem in the forests of the future.

The endangered forest

Increasing amounts of air pollutants and the global climate changes also endangers the forest as a source of raw material and a habitat for man and animals.
Along with the increasing emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane and nitric oxides) there has been a rise in atmospheric global temperature of approx. 0.6 °C since the year 1850.
The effects of these factors on the forest, the bio and hydro spheres are not fully understand.

Storms as heralds of a climate change

Storms have dramatically increased over the past decade. The cost of the damage has reached peaks never experienced before.
The Munich reinsurance (the biggest indemnity insurance enterprise of its kind worldwide), found that by comparing the figures and results of the past decade with those of the 1960s, that the number of storms has rapidly increased globally.
Likewise, the European winter storms have become stronger, extending ever farther via Middle Europe towards the East. As the winters have become distinctly milder in Middle Europe, the Winter High which usually forms above Europe and which previously blocked the storm fronts has relocated itself ever farther towards the East. An open flank for storms has developed, which affects extended forest areas in the whole of Europe, blowing down and breaking millions of trees.

Open flank for storms.
Green: normal course of winter low pressure systems.
Red: course of the winter-storms 1990 and 1999.

Blown down timber needs to be harvested and stored

Where storms have raged in the forest, fungi and insects are prevalent on the damaged trees.
Due to stain and decay fungi, aided by the activity of insects and their boreholes, the trees rapidly deteriorate. To preserve the quality of the valuable timber it has to be harvested appropriately and often stored over several years before it is processed to yield its diverse products.
The STODAFOR project aims to collect, digest and reinforce by research projects, the knowledge of harvesting damaged forests methods and log storage available in Europe, to make it accessible to the public and to be well prepared for the future storm damage of our forests.