Forest maintenance work in the municipal forests

Invitation to the forest inspection on 22 October - Firewood licences can now be purchased

Citizens are cordially invited to a guided tour of the forest on Thursday, 22 October at 4 pm. This year, the on-site event will take place in Sechsruthen - the meeting point is the north-eastern tip of the Sechsruthen forest, where Corinthstraße crosses the BAB 4 motorway. During the forest inspection, Andreas Streich, head of the green space maintenance/forestry department, and Jörg Weisbrich, district forester, will present the forest maintenance work scheduled to be carried out by the green space office in the municipal forests of the city of Chemnitz from the beginning of October. During the forest inspection, they will provide information on the current forest maintenance work in autumn and winter 2015/2016 and the effects of forest maintenance on the development of the forest in the coming years.

Representatives of the media are cordially invited to attend the event.

The forest maintenance work will take place in the Sechsruthen and Zeisigwald forests and should be completed by the end of February 2016 at the latest. Traffic safety work will also be carried out in other forest areas of the city.

The basis for the scheduled forest maintenance work in the municipal forests of the city of Chemnitz is the current ten-year forest management plan for the years 2015 to 2024.

In addition to their protective and recreational functions, many municipal forests also have an economic benefit for people. Only in designated protected areas does no commercial timber extraction take place, such as in the three FSC reference areas, the areas of the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive (so-called FFH areas) and in several forest-covered natural monuments.

Based on one year and one hectare of forest area (= 10,000 m²), the forests of the city of Chemnitz produce around ten cubic metres of wood. Around six cubic metres of this is used for commercial purposes and four cubic metres is used to further increase the living wood stock in the city's own forests. Around 20 per cent of the trees are removed from the stands during scheduled thinning. These are mainly ailing trees, trees with wood defects (curvature, twisted growth, overhang, frost mould etc.) or tree species not suited to the location. Depending on the quality of the wood, it is used to produce stable boards and beams, fibreboard and chipboard, pulp and many other wood products. However, the aim of the thinning work is also to increase the stability of the remaining tree population against environmental influences, to influence the composition of the tree species and to favourably influence the future wood growth of the remaining trees.

A total of around 4,500 cubic metres of raw wood is harvested in the winter months. The purchase of the raw wood by the wood processing industry is contractually bound. The mechanically harvested raw wood is processed into various assortments and temporarily stored on forest roads accessible by lorry. This will inevitably also affect forest roads. After removal of the temporarily stored raw timber assortments, the roads will be repaired again; this also depends on the weather and experience shows that it will not be completed before July 2016.

Forest areas and forest paths closed during the work

Walkers, joggers, cyclists, dog owners and all other visitors to the forest should be aware that forest areas and forest paths are temporarily closed to passers-by for safety reasons during the logging and timber processing (based on the Saxon Forest Act, Section 11, Paragraph 3). A 30 metre high tree has a danger radius of at least 30 metres.

Wooden poles must not be stepped on or climbed on!

Trunks could roll and serious accidents could occur. Children in particular must be instructed about this.

Firewood licences from the district forester

Citizens who would like to use the environmentally friendly fuel wood can now purchase firewood licences from the district forester again: Consultation hours are Mondays from 4 to 6 pm in the office building at Annaberger Straße 89, room 63.

The firewood licence, which is valid for one week and must be carried when collecting, is issued for a minimum quantity of 3 cubic metres. One cubic metre costs 17 euros.

Firewood licences for the remaining wood on the area are only sold when the raw wood ready for sale has been stacked on the forest path.

A chainsaw licence is required to process the wood with a chainsaw in the forest. If you would like to buy two metres of ready-to-cut firewood (minimum quantity 5 cubic metres), please call 0371/488-6752 or send an e-mail to gruenflaechenamt@stadt-chemnitz.de.

Home delivery is also possible for quantities of 10 cubic metres or more.

Contact for citizens

For further information and questions about current forestry work in the Chemnitz municipal forests, please contact the Green Spaces Office by e-mail at gruenflaechenamt@stadt-chemnitz.de or by telephone on 0371/488-6755.