Authors: Sturm, Knut; Welle, Torsten;

Since the early 1990s, municipal forests in Lübeck, northern Germany, are not managed for pre-defined, specific forest structures or tree species compositions anymore. Instead, on 4,620 ha of forest area, Lübeck forest managers carefully accompany natural forest development and try to intervene as little as possible, avoiding disruption of ecosystem dynamics. Thereby, this approach differs from many silvicultural concepts that are also referred to as close-to-nature or natural. Research results from forest ecology and especially disturbance ecology had indeed been discussed for long, indicating that forest species richness requires a high continuity of forest history and developmental conditions, as well as unpredictable natural disturbances. Those ecological insights also challenged nature conservation planning specifications, in particular the protection of species and habitats. The presented management concept provides answers to these open questions. The Lübeck approach builds on regular monitoring (every 5-10 years, with sample plots and area-based inventories). Key indicators are: 1) standing volume in different forest ecosystems, including habitat trees and deadwood, compared to baseline areas, 2) degree of naturalness (tree species composition, incl. all successional stages, gap dynamics, horizontal and vertical vegetation structure), and 3) population parameters of species (mammals, birds, herbs, ferns and fungi).