“A very welcome initiative”

As a token of gratitude, LMU awards a tree sponsorship to all sponsors of the Deutschlandstipendium every year. This makes the financial support a doubly sustainable project. In an interview, Professor Thomas Knoke, head of the Chair of Forest Inventory and Sustainable Use, explains what makes the LMU forest near Landshut so special, why students also benefit from it, and how the tree planting campaign not only promotes bright minds, but also lays roots for future generations.

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Professor Knoke, the university forest has belonged to LMU since a decree issued by the future King Max I in 1802. As the manager of the university forest, you have a job in Germany that is truly one of a kind.

Thomas Knoke: Working in the university forest is challenging and gives me a lot of pleasure. In fact, I couldn't imagine a better job than heading my professorship for forest inventory and sustainable use in conjunction with managing the university forest.

What else makes the LMU forest so special?

Knoke: The university forest is diverse and provides an excellent research and teaching platform for LMU and the Technical University of Munich (TUM). For example, researchers from LMU, TUM, and the Technical University of Dresden are currently investigating the topic of “forest resilience” with the help of a unique experimental facility, the LabForest project. The university forest thus enables genuine interdisciplinary research.

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What are the consequences of the increasing storms caused by global warming or bark beetle infestation?

Knoke: From 2015 onwards, disturbances in the university forest became more frequent, mainly due to bark beetles. Among other things, this development led to the implementation of the LabForest research project. Since then, disturbances have become part of everyday life. As a result, we regularly have to harvest wood on an unscheduled basis. This is less of a problem when the price of wood is good. However, when the price of wood is low, as was the case in 2020, forints cause significant costs. A research team recently estimated that these costs would rise from €115 billion to €247 billion in Europe under severe climate change. However, disturbances do not only have disadvantages. They bring new structures to the forest, offer a temporary window of opportunity for increased biodiversity in the disturbed areas, and open up opportunities for the introduction of tree species that are better adapted to a warm climate.

“It is important to establish young trees under the canopy of older trees at an early stage.”

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What significance do the regular tree planting campaigns of the Deutschlandstipendium have for the LMU forest and for public perception?

Knoke: These campaigns are a welcome opportunity for exchange with the university and its supporters. “It is important to establish young trees under the canopy of older trees at an early stage.”

One of your tasks is to make the LMU forest more resilient through biodiversity. What were or are the most important measures?

Knoke: High biodiversity can contribute to the resilience of a forest by enabling it to recover quickly after severe disturbances. Tree species diversity, for example, contributes to this, because if one tree species fails, others can take over its functions. However, it is particularly important for us to establish young trees under the canopy of older trees at an early stage. If the older trees then have to be harvested due to disturbances or if they die, the young trees can quickly regenerate the functions of the forest. In contrast, it is very difficult to reestablish a forest on bare ground and without the protection of older trees. The early introduction of young trees thus forms a “safety net” for us.

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How can economic interests and ecological responsibility be balanced in the long term?

Knoke: Forestry is an example of how such a balance can be achieved. However, we must refrain from attempting to extract maximum short-term profit from the forest. Because we cannot predict which trees and which forest management practices will be successful in the long term given all the uncertainties, diversity and the inclusion of tree species and stand types that are less profitable from today's perspective are important. We have to accept the potentially slightly lower average profit as a kind of insurance premium. Diversity for risk diversification also supports ecosystem services in addition to timber provision, such as carbon storage and habitat protection.

Which tree species have the best prospects for the future in the LMU forest?

Knoke: That's hard to predict, which is why we work with many tree species. Conifers also play a key role, such as fir, larch, and Douglas fir. We are conducting experiments with cedars and nut trees. Sweet chestnuts, oaks, and black pines are also considered to be particularly well adapted to warmer climates.

You say that forestry needs to be understood internationally.

Knoke: Internationalization is important. Germany, for example, ranks fourth in the world behind China in terms of imports, contributing significantly to global habitat loss. The better we can supply ourselves with raw materials such as wood through domestic production, the more we can curb overexploitation in other countries to meet our needs. We have a wide range of international contacts. We recently had a visit from international students from Ecuador whose professor completed the “Sustainable Resource Management” degree program we offer about 20 years ago. We also cooperate with researchers from Ethiopia, Chile, South Africa, Switzerland, and Austria, for example.

Employers are desperately seeking graduates

Students also regularly collaborate and support research, for example, in the context of their theses. How do both sides benefit from this?

Knoke: The LMU Forest gains unique information, and students can work on topics that are important for the practical management of the university forest.

What career opportunities are open to graduates?

Knoke: Our “Forestry and Resource Management” department has between 900 and 1,000 students, and the forestry faculty at the Weihenstephan/Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences is also very popular with students. So there is plenty of young talent, which is just as important for the resilience of the forestry industry as young trees are for the resilience of the forest. Numerous employers are currently desperately seeking graduates. Even if the current excellent career prospects are likely to return to a “normal” level in the future, forestry science and forestry management can still be considered highly attractive fields.