Why is the forest actually black?

 

You have surely asked yourself why the Black Forest is called black. It is no longer possible to determine exactly, but it is assumed that the naming is related to the impenetrability of the forest, which was often mentioned at that time and which made it "black", i.e. "not visible".

Nowadays, spruce trees are the main species found here, although they were not always so common. In fact, this tree species has dominated the Black Forest only since the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until then, the forest was much more mixed and the majority of spruces were only found on the higher peaks from about 1,000 meters. Otherwise, almost all tree species native to Germany occurred.

Three economic activities in particular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to almost blanket clearing of forests, namely rafting, glassblowing, and charcoal burning. While rafting transported logs across rivers to other towns and countries where they were needed as building materials, glassblowers and charcoal burners needed a lot of firewood for their furnaces and kilns. Apart from that, wood was also used by farmers as a source of energy for heating, as well as a basic material for house construction and utensils. The result of all this was that the Black Forest was almost bare by the end of the nineteenth century.

It was obvious that this could not remain so, because the absence of trees has fatal consequences for the soil. The humus that forms the subsoil of any forest can no longer hold without the living root system of the trees and is eroded away. This allows water to run off the mountain slopes more quickly, leading to more flooding in the plains along the rivers. So something had to be done to reforest the Black Forest.

The first reforestation law of the former Baden government to save the Black Forest was enacted in 1833. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were increased efforts to reforest. Since the main aim was to plant trees that grew very quickly, spruce was chosen, which increasingly led to the development of monocultures. Since then, spruces form almost half of the tree population. They are followed by beech and fir, each with about one sixth.

Today, three quarters of the Black Forest is forested and efforts are being made to reforest more mixed forests in order to cope with climate change. Spruces in particular do not tolerate prolonged periods of drought well because of their comparatively shallow roots, but increasing warming means that rain is failing more and more often, especially in the summer months. A mixed forest can better compensate for such dry periods. In addition, strong storms have been occurring much more frequently in recent years, which have a more drastic effect on a monoculture.