Baden-Württemberg: Associations: Foresters could also help with forest fires

Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - In the fight against the increasing risk of fires, forest owners and conservationists believe that better trained and better equipped foresters can provide a kind of "first aid".

Baden-Württemberg: Associations: Foresters could also help with forest fires

Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - In the fight against the increasing risk of fires, forest owners and conservationists believe that better trained and better equipped foresters can provide a kind of "first aid". The forestry personnel, especially in the endangered areas of the Rhine plain, must immediately receive the necessary training and equipment, demanded the State Forest Association and the German Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) on Tuesday in Stuttgart.

The so-called Freiburg model could serve as a model, said Johann Georg Goldammer, head of the fire ecology working group and the Center for Global Fire Monitoring in Freiburg. In the program that has been set up since 2012, the forestry staff of the municipal forestry office receive the same training as the Freiburg fire brigade. "In addition, the foresters have light basic equipment for the first attack on a forest fire," said Goldammer.

The two associations emphasized that "forest fire risk management" at state level is also important. Responsibilities and procedures must be clearly regulated between the departments, and the tasks of nature conservation, forest management and forest fire prevention must be networked, demanded forest owners and Nabu. Fire brigades and forest sections would have to be consistently equipped with the most modern technology for fighting forest fires, and climate-resilient and mixed forests with many deciduous trees would have to be given preference when converting forests.

Forest owners in particular are currently worried about the prolonged drought. The Baden-Württemberg Minister of Forestry Peter Hauk (CDU), himself a forester, assumes a four-digit number of forest fires in Baden-Württemberg; a two-digit range is normal. "The forest fire season and the great drought are not over yet," he warned on Tuesday.