Forestry

Forest covers almost the entire Nahe region, including the river meadows. At the higher altitudes, there are mostly beech forests, under 400 meters, there are mainly oaks. Interspersed with these are maple, ash, birch, beam, and in wetter areas along the river are alder and willow. After the ruinous phase of commercial exploitation, about 160 years ago, more productive types of trees were introduced, mainly the spruce tree. In the area where a dryer wine-growing climate predominates though, the spruce has only limitated space. Brushwood played an important role in the Nahe valley and in most of its steep side valleys up until 60 years ago. This type of forestry called for cutting down oaks when they reached twenty years of age but allowing the stump to produce shoots in order to create the next generation of trees. The bark was used as a basis of tanning agents for leatherworking, while the wood was prized for burning.