Nature or ecology - Bark Beetle Podcast Launched in Bavarian Forest National Park
In the Bavarian Forest National Park, the bark beetle has a tendency to target spruce trees. These trees are in abundance in the park, and this year, the pest seems to be making a comeback in the area. To spread awareness about this issue, the National Park Administration has launched a new podcast series. The first installment is available on their website, among other places.
The podcast will tackle questions about the sudden mass multiplication of the bark beetle, its management in the park, the types of trees that grow after an infestation, the importance of dead wood, and the habitats it creates. These are just some of the topics being explored by experts in the field.
"Wilderness Creates Knowledge" is a podcast series that has been going on for some time in the Bavarian Forest. This year, it will feature a regular episode about the bark beetle. National Park Manager Ursula Schuster explains, "We're committed to providing transparent and comprehensive information about our work."
For their first episode, Julia Reihofer, a National Park employee, interviews Ingo Brauer, the head of the Scheuereck National Park Service Station, and Martin Scholz, the deputy head of the Forest and Landscape Management Department. In this conversation, they describe how they monitor and locate spruce trees infested by the bark beetle in the management area of the National Park.
The management area is the outer region of the National Park, where interventions in nature are permitted. These interventions can include efforts to contain the spread of the bark beetle and prevent it from reaching nearby private forests. In contrast, the core area of the National Park, where nature is left untouched, allows the bark beetle to thrive.
"This year, we've seen significantly early bark beetle swarm flights in the inner Bavarian Forest," said Jörg Müller, the deputy National Park Manager. The bark beetle flights began on April 6 and 7. "This has never happened before." Although a later cold wave slowed down the bark beetle development, 7,200 of the 10,500 cubic meters of bark beetle-infested spruce wood have been processed in the management zones.
The Bavarian Forest National Park, located in Lower Bavaria, was established in 1970 and is the first national park in Germany. It covers approximately 25,000 hectares of land and borders the Czech National Park Bohemian Forest ( Šumava). According to the statistics, the park attracts about 1.3 million visitors annually.
