[jFriedensreich]

The foresting practices were among the first things i noticed flying to Tallinn. Instead of carefully picking trees to harvest selectively from a wider forest area as i am used to in most of Germany, there seems to be whole football fields of forest just cut down completely and then regrown as a whole in a plantation like fashion similar to how crops are grown. I am not an expert by any means but i thought this practice was being phased out since the late 70s for environmental, resilience and biodiversiuty reasons. I feel as described by the article as being an expat living here and benefitting hugely from the life enabled by estonia and feeling nothing but welcome it is not my place to criticise, but i would support any initiative helping transformation into modern tree/forest planning.

[allumik]

I agree that there's a lot room for improvement when it comes to forest management practices in Estonia. However, just to add to the OP's article, there is another reason for the recent forest clearings. Last year, I faced this issue with my own small patch of forest in Estonia, where had to do almost total clearing. There was no other option to extract /some/ value from the situation and save surrounding forests. It was heartbreaking to witness.

The reason for this was pest infestation caused by the warming climate, which severely impacts large coniferous monoculture forests (also in some regions of Germany, it seems so [1]). Estonia, with its predominantly coniferous forests, is particularly affected. These forests, once considered a future investment, are now being devastated by beetles. My great-grandfather would likely be turning in his grave right now.

Luckily we knew a local harvester pilot, who agreed to leave some birch and maple trees for seeding in the "wild" part of the forest, so we should have a more diverse set of trees going forward. Hopefully for my children to harvest/manage. But leaving them standing as one of the few "ripe" trees cut into our profits, and with the average salary as it is, it is no wonder that many are forced to leave no trees behind.

You'd think that destroying nature just to make ends meet is something you'd hear about the Amazon rainforest, but no, this is happening here in Europe.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9UprJXSVSg

[indoordin0saur]

When visiting Germany I went through the Black Forest area. I was expecting something like you'd see in British Colombia or Northwestern USA. Instead what I saw was forestry plantations of monocrop non-native trees and clearcut patches of forest covering entire mountainsides. I tried looking up where an example of old growth forest can be seen in the area and apparently they simply do not exist.

[ahartmetz]

Keep in mind how different the population densities are.

In the Middle Ages, all (accessible) German forests were harvested until not much was left. Most still existing forests have been re-planted and managed to produce wood since then.

There are exceptions in the form of nature preserves like Naturpark Pfälzerwald.

By the way, there are some fun docmentaries about the hard work in forestry a couple of decades or even more than a hundred years ago. This is one, the rest should show up in suggestions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeU5u4VGkrI

[indoordin0saur]

Oh yeah, I'm not blaming them at all, it's just you can't really compare Europe's wilderness at all to places like the US' or especially Canada's. I think a lot of Europeans aren't even aware that what they consider pristine nature would be considered low quality second-growth forest in other countries.

[eru]

The clearcut patches are probably a reaction to the bark beetle.

(And the recent bark beetle infestation is largely a reaction to the earlier monocrop planting. DW had a good piece on that recently. Most places are planning to regrow their forests with more diversity in species.)

[treprinum]

You should revisit your knowledge of how things are done in Germany and see the clear cuts popping up everywhere, even in Taunus mountains next to some of the richest parts of the country.

[jFriedensreich]

you should just fly (aka google maps sattelite view) over germany and fly over estonia to see what i mean. i am not saying this practice does not exist in germany but the difference in extend is just immediately visible. Its probably the most obvious difference from a brids eye.

[treprinum]

That's how I found out - I used to fly in the latest MS flight sim over parts of Eastern Europe and after one satellite imagery update I noticed clear cuts everywhere, it was really disturbing. And then I learned that Germany has a similar issue albeit on a smaller scale.

[cmrdporcupine]

Sounds like softwood lumber forestry in general in western Canada, too. Mass monocrop plantations, then basically clearcut and replanted.

And at least when I was a kid and out in the foothills camping with parents, huge users of herbicides, too.

They'd attempt be PR-clever about it, too. Along the major roads, it looked all nice. Get about 200ft in on a gravel logging road and you'd see mass clearcuts. Fly over in a small plane, you get a really "nice" vista.

I wonder if the difference you're seeing is softwood vs hardwood?

[treprinum]

Vancouver island is famous for that. In comparison to Eastern Europe the monocultures in Canada get mostly replanted, in the Eastern Europe they most often don't.

[ahartmetz]

Eh, it seems like, historically, forests did not get replanted until the wood ran out, and then they did ;)

When that point was reached is very different by region.

[actionfromafar]

80% (or more!?) of Swedish "forests" are really just monoculture tree plantations, too.

[stefanfisk]

And it's practically illegal to grow your forest any other way even as a private land owner

[eru]

Could you link to an explanation?