Mostly I want to keep this blog site jargon free and low tech, but on this post I thought it might be useful to paste up my own notes which include a few facts and figures for those who are interested in more technical details:
Het Loo Royal Estate
After a good breakfast we piled into the bus and drove only an hour to our first stop, – the Royal Estate ‘Het Loo’ in Apeldoorn. We were met by one of the forest managers, Rene Olthof and we were invited in to a lovely timber building where we had coffee and Rene introduced us to the history and make up of Het Loo, using maps.
Forest Manager Rene Olthof talking us through Het Loo Royal Estate with the use of maps of the forest.
Het Loo is a 10,000 ha forest that originally belonged to the King but now is run by the State. It is divided into three areas of approx 3,000 ha each and managed by three Forest Managers. The yield is 15 cubic metres of Douglas fir per ha per year. There are 4 deer per 100 ha and Rene considers this as a problem! There are roe, red and fallow deer, plus wild boar.
‘We made Holland’ he told us, so nature conservation is a very high priority. Profit from timber is also essential and ‘often these two bite eachother.’
In the past much of the forest was coppiced, – sweet chestnut and oak, – but this is no longer practiced and the forests are managed as high forest. There is some clearfell, but only less than a hectare in size. For the main it is managed as permanent forest. 10% of income from timber is for firewood. It is sold at present for €45 per cubic metre at roadside in lengths. Holland, like Ireland, is enjoying good prices for firewood.
First Stop – Douglas Fir Forest
By 11am we were standing in a high forest of beautiful tall, straight Douglas fir. It is 50 years old, planted in early 1960s. In the last intervention they cut 75 cubic metres per ha which fetched €4000 per ha.
Rene told us there have been five interventions at five year intervals with the first after 20 years. Each time Rene harvested the higher diameter trees. There are now 400 stems per hectare in this forest. The target diameter is 80cm. He thins by eye, selecting 100 future trees per ha across all size ranges.
Mostly the timber sells as construction timber within Holland, although recently he sold large diameter 18 metre logs to Germany at a high price.
Notice the lovely variety of stem sizes in this highly commercial Douglas fir forest.
Every country has its own reasons for having forests. For some, like Ireland, with its relatively low population density, the focus is predominantly timber production. But for Holland, with over 16 million people and no natural forest left at all, a big priority is nature conservation and amenity. Rene Olthof explained to us that the commercial forest on Het Loo Estate pays for the non-commercial areas, such as the extraordinary Badger Mountain Reserve.
I suppose before I go any further I should remind you that we are in Holland here. By ‘mountain’ what is meant is raised ground. In the case of Badger Mountain we’re talking 107 metres above sea level!
Badger Mountain is a nature reserve made up almost entirely of beech forest at a very mature stage. There is no intervention here. The beech forest is being permitted to express itself fully, right though to the ultimate decline of these massive trees.
The Pro Silva group with dead and decaying beech trees
For our group, coming from Ireland with its high emphasis on commercially viable forestry, it was almost inconceivable to see such an area of forest left to nature with no motivation to harvest any of the timber, even as firewood. It was an extraordinary experience.
The forest held an almost primordial quality. I felt my spine tingling as we walked through the forest. We felt we were witnessing something so rare, – a forest in this day and age allowed to naturally go through all the stages of decay and decline followed by gradual rebirth.
These fungi slowly consuming this dead stump had a sculptural appearance.
There is often a mis-conception that ‘close-to-nature’ means, – leaving it all up to nature. No, that is not the case. It’s more to watch what nature does in the forest and try to work along in harmony with that dynamic in order to exploit the benefits of doing so. One of the benefits of letting the forest at Badger Mountain do its thing is that it’s only by leaving some forests alone that we can observe exactly what it is that nature is doing there.
Of course there are many other benefits to leaving it be, not least the effect such a place has on the human spirit. I left with the promise to myself that I’ll get back there for another look some day.
A truly open forest has evolved as many over-mature beech trees have fallen.
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Tags: Holland
