The Forest Groups and the Forestry Commission are working together within LIFE Climate Forest on resilient forests through climate-smart forest management. The project clarifies the challenges, dilemmas, opportunities and management options. These insights help managers make guiding choices. From selecting and adding species to create more variety in the forest, to choosing specific provenances. Choices that contribute to successful rejuvenation are also important. And to test in practice which tree species - under which conditions - can be planted successfully, the saplings in the demonstration forests (demosites) carefully monitored.

Under the guidance of forest ecologists Etiënne Thomassen and Lisa Raats (Bosgroep Zuid Nederland), Lena Lichtenberg and Sam Tuijtel have already mapped the status of the LIFE project's young plantings at three demo sites. In doing so, the two students follow strictly established monitoring plans.

Etiënne Thomassen: "In the sample forests of Hilvarenbeek, Alphen-Chaam and People's Abbey O.L.V. ter Duinen planted a selection of tree species two seasons ago that we expect to do well and be future-proof. That selection has been extensively checked and we also only plant species of known origin to ensure reliability and repeatability later. It is important that we are careful and that also applies to monitoring. Within the LIFE project, this is really about a field trial that should show where planting the selected species does or does not help."

For the three areas, this is basically the second growing season and forest experts from Bosgroep Zuid Nederland monitor them annually. So this is the second time that the planting is viewed on site. The forest experts and their trainees check whether the young trees and shrubs are doing well and under which conditions.