During the AFECO excursion week, 24 AFECO students of the 2023 cohort visited the Kottenforst, a forest near Bonn. Four foresters from the forestry office "Wald und Holz NRW" explained the purpose of the forest and the tasks of a forester.
Together with the foresters, the students hiked to a specific area in the Kottenforst which represents a Marteloskop. A Marteloskop is a training area for silvicultural exercises. In this area all trees are mapped digitally. By using tablets, information, such as CO2 storage, height, diameter size, economic and ecological value can be assessed. The application on the tablets was developed together with the European Forest Institute.
After receiving an introduction into the application, the students got the hypothetical task to extract trees that collectively remove a certain amount of CO2 stored in them while maximizing the habitat value of the remaining trees and economic value of the removed trees. In groups, the students walked around the area and inspected the respective trees which belonged to one of three tree species: sessile oak, common hornbeam or common beech. Using the tablets, the students were able to receive specific information for each tree.