The special case of spruce – stock decreased
The spruce is the only tree species of which the stock declined, and that was by 4%.
Forest in the Sauerland region after the windstorm 'Kyrill'. © Klaus Rose - stock.adobe.com
At the same time the area of spruce shrank. This corresponds to the silvicultural and forestry policy target objective of recent years. It was accelerated by storms and the mass propagation of beetles. The spruce stock declined particularly intensely in Nordrhein-Westfalen, where in January 2007, the windstorm Kyrill uprooted or fractured approximately 15.7 million solid metres of mainly pure spruce stands over an area of roughly 50,000 hectares (Ministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 13.01.2012, in German).