The demo site is part of Boschoord Estate. Sustainable and climate-proof forest management has been carried out in these forests for some time, with tree-oriented forest management having been applied in some forest sections before. For the LIFE Climate Forest project, a demo site has been designated with different tree species, ages and exit situations in order to apply tree-oriented forest management and related measures on a larger scale. The focus here is on strengthening and climate-proofing the forest ecosystem by paying attention to wood production, biodiversity and perception.

Compartment map

Habitat tree (blue H)

Thinning path

Timber harvest

Within LIFE Climate Forest, we are implementing the following measures:

We have designated an Old, Decaying and Dead trees (OAD) network by designating nature islands and habitat trees. These nature islands and habitat trees (see picture) are forever spared during sawing operations.

We have mapped all thinning paths and drainage routes to avoid unnecessary soil compaction (see picture). Here, most of the thinning paths are every 20 metres, but there have also been experiments with laying out thinning paths every 40 metres. When plotting these thinning paths, mainly old thinning paths were used and also old thinning paths were skipped when they were too close together. Narrow or fragile paths were also left out to ensure that no unnecessary damage was made in the forest area.

There was bleaching with the methodology of Bostracken. This involved first identifying all future trees, both in the first and second tree layers. This was immediately recorded digitally in the process, with any measures such as pruning also mentioned. Then the trees to be felled were marked for clearance of the future trees and the target diameters to be harvested were marked. This also mapped the spots where replanting could be done.

A timber harvest took place (see picture) according to the marked trees to be felled.

In spring 2025, the remaining measures will be implemented, such as the pruning up (potential) quality trees, the purge of rejuvenation and the replanting of new trees. Here, a proportion of known tree species will be replanted, but the main emphasis will be on introducing new and lesser-known tree species.

Introduction of new tree species

These tree species have been well studied and should be able to thrive in the forest with current climate change. Also, many of these species contribute to improving litter digestion and thus counteracting acidification. And some of these species contribute to the timber production function, which is very important in this area.

Besides replanting new trees, we will also conduct a trial of seeding new forest under screen of older trees.

These measures are implemented between 15 January and 31 March 2025.