The aim of a prop­er usage in the Grünewald in the frame of a man­age­ment close to nature is the cre­ation of a healthy and high qual­i­ty tree pop­u­la­tion. This man­age­ment can be reached by pre­cise and selec­tive clear­ing inter­ven­tions on the young trees. In fact it is pos­si­ble to strong­ly influ­ence the mutu­al devel­op­ment between the trees in favour of the healthy, strong and required species all by cut­ting down the dam­aged and weak ones (neg­a­tive selec­tion procedure).

Selective thinning

Nega­tive selec­tion pro­ce­dure
The fores­ter marks two trees which could even­tually repre­sent an obst­a­cle for oth­er stron­ger trees (mar­ked with a green rib­bon). The trees mar­ked with a cross have to be cut down.

All rare and pio­neer species how­ev­er and all those kinds that help to pre­serve the char­ac­ter of a real mixed for­est have to be looked after with the great­est care. As soon as it can be deter­mined what trees are able to reach the required trunk diam­e­ter (aimed force) and qual­i­ty (future trees), they are favoured and get spe­cial care (pos­i­tive selec­tion) and all even­tu­al oth­er trees around that could pre­vent in any way their devel­op­ment are marked by the forester and cut down. With this method the healthy and strong trees are able to devel­op at their best.

Posi­tive selec­tion pro­ce­dure
A for­est work­er is cut­ting down a mal­for­med beech (trunk has the form of a fork).

As the suc­cess of a good care man­age­ment can be weak­ened by ground dam­age, pro­voked by cut downs and clean­ing, spe­cial soft ground treat­ments are used and the deploy­ment of real horse pow­er is applied.

Principle of clearing

With the reg­u­lar col­lec­tion of clear­ing wood the healthy and vital trees are delib­er­ate­ly preserved.

Before the thinning	After the thinning
The mobi­li­sa­tion of draughts when har­ves­ting the tim­ber pro­tects the for­est ground and oth­er trees from dam­age and clea­ning dam­ages are preven­ted with the grea­test care.	For­est work­er cut­ting down a beech