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    Heartbreaking view today in the Harz Mountains.
    Germany

    Heartbreaking view today in the Harz Mountains.

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    30 Comments

    2. Mangobonbon on

      On the positive side: now the forest can regenerate in a more natural way. The fir plantations are mostly a remnant of the mining era in the mountains and the standing dead wood is very benefitial for various birds, insects and fungi.

      But yes, currently the Harz highlands look a lot like the scottish ones rather than the deep forests it used to be 20 years ago.

    5. AndroidPornMixTapes on

      The monoculture is gone, growth is happening, this is an uplifting picture, not heartbreaking at all!

    6. silenttravelguide on

      This really hit me today. Seeing the ….Waldsterben… in person is something else entirely. The scale of the transformation in the Harz is just heartbreaking.

    8. mike_sl on

      Took me a while to realize that most of the forest jn Germany was artificially planted for logging.

      Now that I have seen old growth forest in central Pennsylvania USA, I can’t enjoy the walks in german forests as much. Of course a lot of PA woods are second / third growth…. But at least not monoculture in near tidy rows…

    10. digitalcosmonaut on

      Been looking like this for years. The Borkenkäfer killed all the spruce trees. Now they’re dealing with the Eichenprachtkäfer which is killing the remaining oak trees.

    11. silenttravelguide on

      I totally agree, and I know it will eventually recover and become a more natural forest. But having been here in my youth, seeing this transformation in person was quite a shock. It’s hard to see the landscape you remember change so drastically.

    13. Interesting_Rise4616 on

      Time to get rid of the conifere monoculture woods in germany. We are not siberia.

    14. RabidBanana6769 on

      We had something similar in my area like 20 years ago and only severerly affected area was pine monoculture. As it was artificially planted I consider that nothing of value was lost. I would be very sad if that would be a natural reserve tho.

    15. Away-Huckleberry9967 on

      It’s now called the Bürgergeld Mountains and will soon be called the Grundsicherung Mountains. /s

    17. Chinjurickie on

      Oh no no this is wonderful. Now this disgrace of a „forest“ is gone and the greedy idiot planting a monoculture there hopefully bankrupt. What is sad is that said greedy idiot was allowed to plant such monocultures in the first place.

    18. TopConclusion7032 on

      More than 30 years ago the Harz looked the same. This gives me a good feeling that it will look good again within my lifetime.

    19. OtherwiseAct8126 on

      I saw a video about this 1 or 2 years ago and everyone involved was rather happy that the old monoculture forest was gone and new things are growing and more naturally and resilient than before

    20. tufoop5 on

      It is really shocking to see for the first time, especially if you also know it from the times it was just a forest. However there are still quite a few nice places in the Harz mountains where the trees are (still?) untouched

    22. Nash_Ben on

      It’s been like that for a few years now and it’s been even worse. Actually new trees are growing and new natural woods are developing. It just takes a lot of time.

      Monocultures, drought, storms, wildfires and the bark beetle are the cause of the destruction.

    25. TheAltToYourF4 on

      Honestly, that’s a good thing. What you’re seeing here is the result of a monoculture plantation and there’s nothing natural about it. Forests like that are pretty dead as far as biodiversity goes.

    27. Young_Economist on

      On a flat like this, me and my former colleagues planted a few thousand trees 3 years ago with the Forester – next to Wernigerode. Prost Hasseröder

    28. Zealushka on

      I saw video about this. The key is that those trees are badly chosen for this area, they are not meant to be growing naturally without issues there, and people already reconsidered and started replanting