Forest inspection in Weiden: City council explores the challenges of forestry

Forest inspection in Weiden: City council explores the challenges of forestry

The Weiden city council carries out an annual forest inspection. MayorJens Meyerinvites you to do so. Twelve city councilors are taking part in the excursion. City foresterWolfgang Winterexplains the challenges of forest management.

Problem of drying out

The tour begins in the Mooslohe. Here Winter explains the problem of the area drying out. Over 200 hectares of the former moor are in the urban area. The peat thickness used to be up to 5 meters. This suggests that bog formation began around 8,000 years ago.

Transformation of the coniferous forest

Another point of the inspection is the “Stadtgut”. This forest section lies between the motorway and Mooslohstrasse. After the war, spruce trees were reforested here. The coniferous forest is to be gradually transformed into deciduous forest. This serves to protect drinking water and noise protection in the settlement on Parksteiner Straße. In addition, nitrogen inputs in the water protection area should be avoided.

History of the Mooslohe

At the third point, south of the “Waldhof”, Winter reports on the eventful history of the Mooslohe. This ranges from fish farming experiments in the 16th century to peat extraction in the 19th century. Here too, the development of plant growth shows a progressive drying out of the area.

Activities of beavers

The tour ends at the Sauerbach. There, the water in the valley is being held back by recent beaver activity. This means that peat formation has already begun.