On 15–16th October 2024, fifty employees from the Mimoň Division (Northern Bohemia) and the Plumlov Division (Central Moravia) of the Military Forests and Estates visited Neudorf and Taura forest districts of Saxon State Forests. At FoB Neudorf, Dr. Clemens Weiser (FoBL) and Bastian Giggel (Rev L Elterlein) presented the conversion of pure, even-aged spruce monocultures into habitat-appropriate mixed forest stands. The demonstrations included a cross-section of stands from thinning to felling age using natural regeneration.
From a didactic point of view, the excursion was excellently prepared and stimulated in-depth professional discussion on the given issue. The Czech foresters' questions were about the intensity and structure of interventions in the shelterwood, methods of underplanting, work with natural regeneration, and the choice of target diameter. Another prevailing topic was the issue of costs and standards in procurement procedures and their compliance, as well as aspects of soil protection.
On the second day of the excursion, at FoB Taura in Gräfendorf district, Jan Glock showed that these management principles in a modified version can also be applied in pine forests. This was demonstrated in a pine stand with beech underplanting. Foresters from FoB Taura gave a presentation on the use of natural regeneration for restoration of heavily damaged clearings and the transformation of pure pine stands into mixed stands in the lowlands of North Saxony.
In the stands in the Belgern area, natural regeneration was achieved through appropriate soil preparation. There was great interest in the issue of pine representation in mixed stands through natural regeneration. Here, a different forestry approach was shown, while the work with natural pine regeneration was similar.In Plumlov, pine stands are harvested by clear-cutting only, leaving standard trees for natural regeneration and ploughing of the harvested area. Stand enrichment with other woody species occurs exclusively through their spontaneous spread. The comparison of two areas with high weed competition was impressive; here, the development of natural regeneration was demonstrated depending on different methods of soil cultivation.
