Station 9: Information sheets on woodworking

Wood processing ball track

At the stations along the ball track, you can learn how a small tree can be turned into a wooden staircase or roof truss after many decades:

• Planting the seedlings
• Caring for the young trees and the older forest
• Felling the mature trees
• Loading the trunks onto lorries and transporting them to the sawmill
• Processing by the joiner or carpenter

Planting

The seeds of forest trees fall to the ground. They germinate and new trees grow. In a forest with only one tree species, there are only seeds from that one tree species. If you want to have a mixed forest that is more resilient to climate change, the forest owner must plant other tree species.

Care

The newly planted trees need a lot of care in their first years of life so that they are not overgrown by brambles, ferns or grass. Foresters therefore have to mow the trees planted in rows once a year. They do this with a device aptly named a brush cutter.

Selection

As the trees grow older, the forester decides which trees to fell and which to allow to continue growing. First, crooked, diseased or damaged trees are marked and felled. The forest continues to grow, becoming denser, and the trees take up each other's space. Then, a few years later, some trees have to be removed again. And so it goes on.

Special trees are marked with a special sign, which means: leave them standing!
 

Felling

Felling trees is a job for experts. The men and women who fell large trees with chainsaws are called foresters. However, this is often done by machines with long gripper arms and saws attached to the front. These are called harvesters.

Hauling

Once the trunks have been felled in the forest, they first have to be hauled away. This is done either with a tractor and winch or with special forestry machines with long gripper arms. They grab the trees and pile them up on the roadsides. These piles are called wood stacks.

Loading

Once the logs have found a buyer, they are loaded onto lorries. Because the logs are lying right next to the road, this is no problem. The timber lorries also have a gripper arm. A timber lorry loaded with logs is over 20 metres long!

Transport

Now it's off to the road and on to the nearest sawmill. From an ecological point of view, it makes sense to keep transport distances as short as possible.

So ask where the wood comes from when you shop at the DIY store!

Sawmill

At the sawmill, the logs are sawn into boards, square timbers and beams and then sold. Depending on the type of wood and what is to be made from it, the wood goes to different buyers.

Carpenters

Carpenters need timber. They use it to build roof trusses or even entire wooden houses. No one can hammer nails as well as carpenters! They are known for their traditional work clothes, including slouch hats and black corduroy trousers.

Carpenters

Carpenters make wonderful things out of wood! Without them, our rooms would be pretty empty. Just imagine: no beds, no tables, no chairs, no shelves...