25 years ago, Lothar wreaked havoc in Swiss forests
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Twenty-five years ago, Hurricane Lothar toppled trees like dominoes in Switzerland. Forests today are better prepared to cope with such an exceptional event, says the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).
Lothar swept across Switzerland on the morning of December 26, 1999, dumping 14 million cubic metres of timber on the ground, the WSL said on Wednesday. Fourteen people died.
The Federal Office for the Environment put the total damage at CHF1.35 billion ($1.5 billion), with CHF600 million for buildings and CHF750 million for forests. In all, 2% of trees in Switzerland were toppled or bent.
Thanks to Lothar, many forests have since become more structured, with new habitats for numerous plant and animal species. With spruce trees now much rarer on the Central Plateau, the Swiss forest is now better equipped to cope with a “storm of the century”.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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