Three years of drought in a row and the bark beetle infestation severely affected the forest in North Rhine-Westphalia. More than 80.000 hectares, almost 000 percent of the forest area in the country , are so badly damaged, according to figures from the federal government, that they have to be reforested. If you drive through the Sauerland, for example, you will always see large areas with dead trees. Many forest farmers who live from the sale of wood are therefore in a financially difficult situation. Because it takes decades for newly planted trees to generate profits.

Wind turbines in the forest for a faster energy turnaround Harvesting wind power instead of wood on the fallow land in the future could be an alternative for many foresters that generates faster profit. “Basically all of the forest farmers need that,” says Karl-Josef Stratmann, who sits on the board of the NRW forest farmers’ association and operates wind turbines in the Sauerland with his wife. But the construction of the meter high systems on the wooded hilltops is highly controversial in NRW.

On the one hand, in addition to the forest owners, there are those for whom the energy transition is not going fast enough. “Three birds with one stone” can be killed in open forest areas, says the chairman of the regional association for renewable energies, Reiner Priggen. “The foresters have predictable income, they can invest the money in climate-adapted reforestation and, in addition, the systems immediately prevent CO 2 emissions”, the former head of the NRW parliamentary group of the Greens is promoting more wind turbines in the forest. Forest owner Stratmann also calls for a rethink in politics.

“Forest is not a commercial area” takes the opposite position Heide Naderer. “The forest is not an industrial park,” says the state chairman of the nature conservation organization Nabu. Wind turbines are not sustainable and therefore have no place in the “forest ecosystem”. In addition, the forest farmers received “a lot of money to compensate for the damage caused by drought and incorrect forest management”. Indeed, NRW is increasing the funding for forest managers to cope with forest damage in the coming year to 75 million euros .

There is no blockage for wind turbines in the forests of North Rhine-Westphalia, says Agriculture Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU). “It is already possible today to approve wind turbines on forest areas that have become bare, for example due to drought and insect damage.” The municipalities examined each individual case. “Whether it can come to further relief for the construction of wind power on bare areas has to be analyzed further”, announced the minister.

From the NRW Ministry of Economics and Energy it is said that wind turbines in the forest as Usually would be a wrong way. With a change in the state development plan, the state government has standardized the protection of forests from other uses. Wind power projects would have to be measured against the same strict regulations as commercial areas, for example. They are only permitted if there is no possibility of erecting wind turbines outside the forest in a municipality or town.

According to the NRW wind energy decree, installations in “structurally poor coniferous forests” are permitted. For Waldbauer Stratmann this is too strict a requirement. If “a small piece of beech forest on the edge of a potential wind turbine area” is touched, an investment of 4 to 5 million euros should not fail.

Only a few forest wind power plants So far, comparatively few wind turbines have been set up in the forests of North Rhine-Westphalia. The rotor blades of 90 wind turbines turn mainly in the forests of the Sauerland and Siegerland as well as the Eifel. Another six systems are under construction, according to the Forest and Wood Agency. With more than 3700 wind turbines in total in NRW, this is a very small number. Not even 5 percent of all over 2000 wind turbines in German forests are in NRW.

Because other federal states are less restrictive . In Rhineland-Palatinate, there are currently over 450 systems. There are a similar number in Hessen. Unlike in North Rhine-Westphalia, certain deciduous trees can be felled there. In both countries, however, the forests also have a significantly higher proportion of the total area than in NRW. “If North Rhine-Westphalia were to react to a similar extent, 450 to 1000 Plants possible, “says Waldbauer Stratmann, referring to the numbers in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Marc Messerschmidt dismisses such comparisons. “It would be nice if we didn’t have any wind turbines in the forest,” says the forest expert, who is responsible for such construction projects at the Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz. After all, it is the legally prescribed task of the state enterprise to “maintain the forest and its functions and, if possible, to increase it”. In view of the energy transition necessary for climate protection, the forests cannot be kept completely free of wind turbines.

More wind turbines in planning According to the numbers of forest and wood, the individual wind turbines do not occupy a lot of space. An average of 0.3 hectares per mast. Fears that “motorway-like aisles” would have to be cut into the forests for the transport of masts and rotors are unfounded, says Messerschmidt. In addition, forest areas occupied by wind turbines would have to be replaced by new plantings.

According to Messerschmidt, there will also be more wind turbines in the forests in NRW in the coming years. Meanwhile almost 210 projects are in the planning or already in the approval process. The forest expert fears that the pressure on the forests could increase due to stricter distance regulations to residential houses. Then the wind turbines would be displaced “from the mostly agricultural areas in the immediate vicinity of settlements to the forest areas which are usually further away from the buildings.”

(olb)