Die Forstschutz-Strategie im Kanton Bern nach Lothar | Forest protection strategy in the canton of Berne post-Lothar

Hurricane Lothar left 4.2 million cubic metres of damaged wood in its wake when it passed over the canton of Berne on 26th December 1999. The forest protection strategy to deal with the consequences is based on legal requirements and experience gained from hurricane Vivian from 1999. The goal of the protection measures is to preserve as much as possible of the forest that the storm left standing. To begin with, extended damaged zones where the development and damage caused by the bark beetle could run its course in a more or less closed cycle were excluded from any measures. Next, it was decided to assign each remaining zone to one of two categories;either a zone needed to be examined more closely before deciding whether or not to impose protection measures(action zones) or to generally renounce treatment (free zones). In a third step each action zone was subjected to a discriminating examination. Forestry protection measures were prescribed for about 2 million cubic metres of storm wood. By applying this strategy, it was possible to set necessary priorities.