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"The agriculture ministry also acknowledges the problem has become acute. In a report this month, it said that Germany's woodlands have never been in such bad shape. One in four trees is damaged, and the number of those worst hit has increased by eight percent over the last year, the report said.
The development is particularly disturbing in the Black Forest, which is considered to be 40 percent "damaged", the worst attrition rate since 1983. The number of unhealthy trees in this southwest corner of Germany near the French border has risen by 10 percent over 2003, due in part to a drought last year whose effects are being felt with some delay. "You can't just turn a blind eye. The Black Forest has been historically weakened, above all here on the western edges where the wind brings in pollutants from the Rhine valley," says (ed. - researcher Klaus von) Wilpert.
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The problem is even more pronounced on the other side of Germany, where waste from heavy industry in Poland and the Czech Republic wafts over woodland. While the FVA is singling out the Rhine river basin here, it does admit some responsibility for the problems by having planted trees from 1950-1970 that were not well adapted to the environment. "The spruce grows quickly. We made the error of wanting to rapidly grow wood for cutting," the researcher says, gesturing to a clutch of trees some 10 metres (30 feet) taller than nearby pines planted at the same time. "But it's a fragile tree and its needles are acidic and add to the pollution in the streams and ground water."
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The FVA also has harsh words for some of those who frequent the forest. Off-road motorcyles and quad bikes abound and their ever-compacting tracks means that rain water runs off rather than seeps into the ground, lowering the water table. This decline in ground water is considered "without doubt the biggest challenge at the moment."
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041223/ts_afp/germanyenviroment.041223152017