Swiss Forests Have Too Few Young Trees Or The Wrong Species

2026-03-03 02:13:08

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Swiss forests have a regeneration problem. In many places, too few young trees are growing back, or when they do they are species that are not adapted to climate change. This content was published on March 3, 2026 - 11:59 3 minutes Keystone-SDA

Deutsch de In Schweizer Wäldern wachsen wenig oder die falschen Jungbäume Original Read more: In Schweizer Wäldern wachsen wenig oder die falschen Jungb

This is the conclusion reached by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in various research projects. They presented their findings in a special issue of the Swiss Journal of Forestry, as the WSL announced on Tuesday.

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While the number of young trees has increased after storms on the northern side of the Alps, it is significantly lower in the central Alps and on the southern side of the Alps, as the WSL writes. The reasons for this are a lack of light in overmature forests or damage caused by wild animals.
Regional differences
According to the WSL researchers, the situation regarding forest regeneration varies greatly from region to region. On the northern side of the Alps, the number of young trees per hectare increased after the winter storms Vivian and Lothar. Many deciduous tree species in particular are growing there.

In the central Alps, however, where conifers dominate, and on the southern side of the Alps, regeneration is significantly lower. The researchers cite overmature forests, where young trees lack light, and damage caused by high numbers of wild ungulates as the reasons for this.
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