Project description BauBuche

The project develops options for increasing the amount of beech wood to be used as construction wood. For this purpose, two innovative research approaches are applied:

1. Increasing the share of beech wood that can be used for construction purposes. 

Through silvicultural measures the structure of forests and the architecture of individual trees and their growth can be controlled and modified. In growth models natural pruning and diameter growth of trees can be simulated and guidelines for enhancing the share of construction wood can be developed. A high share of straight stems, free of branches is wanted.

The importance of the different quality criteria is valued in cooperation with the project Wandelbarer Holzhybrid (Project number: 28W-K-3-137-03).

2. Optimizing the utilization oriented cutting regime with the help of adequate inventory tools. 

For planning the product oriented cutting regime forest inventory methods are applied, which allow a precise assessment of tree dimension, straightness, twisted stems and other quality parameters when trees are still standing. The use of terrestrial laser scanning offers the needed information.

The two approaches allow an optimization of beech management in order to provide a high amount of beech construction wood. Various management options and their impacts on quantity and quality of the harvested assortments are calculated and economically analyzed. Based on these results simple management recommendations are developed, which may optimize beech wood management.