Approximately 500,000 hectares of forest in the Czech Republic are potentially threatened by bark beetle infestation, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (see map, red areas). To reforest these areas as quickly as possible after harvesting the infested wood the Ministry has eased the regulations for origins of forest plants.

Thus forest owner don’t have to stick to certain origins anymore and are more flexible in their choice of tree species. The aim is a quick reforestation with mixed forests. The spruce, which is hardly planted recently anyway, is excepted from this regulation.

By the way: if one multiplies the threatened area by the average stock (261 m3/ha) there is an amount of 130 million m3 of potential bark beetle wood to come from these forests if the infestation shouldn’t be stopped effectively. Even if there’s only the average share of spruce assumed it’s still almost 70 million m3. The truth may be somewhere between these two quantities.