Since then, the foresters of the state, now the Lower Saxony State Forests, have been in charge of the city forest. This is a great advantage - after all, the property boundary between the city and the state forestry often runs right through what citizens perceive as "one" city forest.
44% of the city forest are predominantly old and very old oak forests. Most of the trees had already grown into stately specimens when people could think neither of cars nor of railroads! Especially in the north of the city, pine grows on the poorer sandy sites there, with an area share of about 21%. While beech, alder, ash, birch and other deciduous trees are also well represented with 26% area share, spruce and Douglas fir have only small shares.
The history of the forest is long - it began after the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago and the gradual reforestation of the barren landscape. Up to the beginning of the Middle Ages, Germany was largely covered by forest. The forest was pushed back again by humans in many areas. This development continued until the Thirty Years' War. Then quite a few villages became deserted - the old deserted villages of Detmerode and Hohnstedt, for example, bear witness to this, as do the many Wölbäcker, whose gentle bulges can still be seen today in many places and well in the forest. During this time, the forest has reclaimed many a field. Today, just under a third of Germany's territory is still covered with forest.
The realization of the finiteness of the important resource wood led to the introduction of regulated forestry, which incidentally is also the birth of sustainability. In 1791, Georg Ludwig Hartig wrote in "Anweisung zur Holzzucht für Förster" (Instructions on Timber Management for Foresters): "No sustainable forestry can be conceived and expected if the timber yield from the forests is not calculated for sustainability. Every wise forestry management must therefore seek to use the forests (...) in such a way that the descendants can derive at least as much benefit from them as the present generation is able to acquire.
Man has needed and used the forest in many ways, favoring some tree species. The oak in particular has benefited from this - its wood was in demand and the acorns were coveted as fodder for the cattle. That is why today we can admire the many, old and mighty oaks. Without this influence, the copper beech would be the dominant tree species of our local forests.