Dunja, a trainee forester, plants an oak tree during the presentation of the project "10,000 trees for a climate-resistant mixed deciduous forest", which was planned and carried out by the trainees at Berliner Forsten.
© dpa
More than half a million deciduous trees have been planted in Berlin's forests in recent months. This has created around 100 hectares of new mixed forest, as the Senate Department for the Environment announced on Wednesday.
This corresponds to an area roughly twice the size of Berlin's Hasenheide. According to the information provided, mainly sessile oaks were planted, but also copper beeches, winter lime trees and bird cherries.
The aim of the conversion is to make the forests more climate-resistant. "The aim of the Berlin Forestry Department's forest development is to create stable, vital, mixed and structured forests made up of native tree species and to reduce the number of fire- and storm-prone pine forests," explained the environmental administration. The planting took place as part of the mixed forest program. Since 2012, the environmental administration has been regularly planting young, native deciduous trees - more than four million trees have been planted since then. Over time, the aim is to create a mixed forest in which the deciduous trees reproduce themselves.
"The effects of the climate crisis are hitting the forest hard," said Senator for the Environment Manja Schreiner (CDU). Just over one in three trees shows clear signs of damage due to persistent drought, as the authority reports on its website. The speed of the changes in particular is a major problem, Schreiner said. Yet forests are vital for the quality of life in Berlin. For example, they provide cooler air and stabilize the water balance in the soil, which is important for drinking water production.