Erfurt (dpa/th) - In order to grow many young trees for the forest of the future, the state forest institute relies on the help of hard-working children's hands. On Friday, she called on school classes to collect acorns and hand them in to the forestry department. From this, young trees are to be grown in the forest tree nursery in Breitenworbis (Eichsfeld), which will help with reforestation and the conversion of the forest into a climate-stable mixed forest, it said. The effort is rewarded financially: "We reward the hard-working helpers with 4 euros per kilogram of oak seed collected," explained Thüringenforst board member Volker Gebhardt.
For the propagation of the trees, the foresters only need high-quality seeds. School classes should therefore have the local forestry office show them suitable areas in the state forest before collecting them. Acorns collected in the wild, for example in gardens and parks, could only be used as animal feed in winter and would only be remunerated at 20 cents per kilogram. The acorns can also be harvested fresh.
According to the Thüringenforst, the acorns are a little smaller this year because of the very dry winter. However, quite a few oak trees bear fruit. It was said that Thüringenforst would not be able to harvest this year's oak fattening without the help of third parties.
