Noah Weinbrecht (B.Sc. Forest Management)
works today as a district forest manager (Revierleiter) at Landesforsten Rhineland-Palatinate.
Since 2021, a cooperative program between the university and Landesforsten Rhineland-Palatinate has offered the qualification for the upper forestry service in parallel with the degree program. As a combined student of the first cohort, Noah Weinbrecht was able to obtain his bachelor’s degree and complete the civil service career examination within four years. After successfully passing the exam, he was appointed as a civil servant.
The instructive practical phases at the Boppard Forest Office complemented his studies in Rottenburg and enabled a smooth transition into professional life. His first position was managing a forest district in the Rheinhessen Forest Office. Due to the region’s low forest cover, the tasks are very diverse. In addition to advising municipalities, nature conservation, traffic safety, forest conversion, and public relations are important areas of responsibility.
The elective modules in the degree program allowed for individual specialization in current topics such as ecosystem services of forests. Optimal preparation was provided both by the practice-oriented studies in Rottenburg and by the continuous learning experience with a dedicated training forester in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Lisa Weiß
The diverse range of courses in the Bachelor of Forest Mangement at HFR made it possible to explore one’s individual interests. Some of my fellow students discovered their passion for nature conservation, forest education, GIS, nursery operations, or silviculture.
I realized that I kept returning to the same questions: What are the limits of the technical usability of wood? How can an economy striving for sustainability make meaningful use of old and residual wood? What utilization options exist for wood that is increasingly accumulating in German forests due to climate change?
I found researchers working on these and many other questions at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. In the master’s program Wood Technology and Management, wood is examined not only macroscopically, as in timber construction, but also down to the molecular level. In this international and interdisciplinary environment, the seemingly endless possibilities of using wood and wood products as technical materials become visible—possibilities we have so far used only to a limited extent.
Although my practice-oriented bachelor’s degree meant the challenge of adapting to a very differently thinking academic environment, I am grateful for the holistic perspective it gave me on material cycles in the forestry and wood industry.
My studies enable me to contribute to making one of our forest’s great potentials—wood—usable in highly technical applications.
Jana Niedermayer
After completing her B.Sc. in Forest Management in Rottenburg with a specialization in Geographic Information Systems and Landscape Management, she pursued a master’s degree in Environmental Sciences (specialization: Land Use and Nature Conservation) at the University of Freiburg. Since 2021, she has been working as a research associate at the NABU Forest Institute (formerly Institute for Landscape Ecology and Nature Conservation, ILN) in Bühl.
Her tasks are diverse and varied: in addition to ecological project support for testing nature conservation–optimized maintenance of Rhine flood protection dikes, she also manages a forest grazing project, prepares biotope network planning for several municipalities, and is involved in a scientific research project at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on biodiversity and water management (BioWaWi). In the future, the focus will increasingly shift toward forest-related projects, as the institute intends to expand its research in this area. The forest Management degree at HFR thus laid the foundation for a versatile career by opening up new and exciting fields of interest.
Lorenz Hausch (B.Sc. Forest Management)
with a specialization in “Forest and Municipal Management,” works today as a district forest manager at Blauwald GmbH & Co. KG.
Since being hired after graduation, Lorenz Hausch has been responsible for managing a forest district. This work is varied and extensive. His professional responsibilities include planning, organizing, and carrying out timber harvesting, young stand tending, forest regeneration, hunting, road maintenance, as well as supervising and guiding the forest workers and contractors in the district.
The practice-oriented training at the university in Rottenburg, combined with the experience gained during internships in various forestry enterprises, enabled Lorenz Hausch to enter the profession directly as a district manager in a private forestry company.
Miriam Langenbucher
Bachelor of Applied Forest Sciences / Engineer (FH), with a focus on General Forestry, now works as the manager of the newly developing Steigerwald Treetop Walk in Bavaria.
After her studies, she completed the forestry inspector trainee year at the Soonwald Forest Office with Landesforsten Rhineland-Palatinate and was appointed to the state service after passing the state examination. After two years in controlling within the state forestry administration, she moved to the Bavarian State Forests into her current position.
Once the project phase is completed, she will take over the operational management of the treetop walk and will be responsible for staff leadership, planning, budgeting, and, for example, traffic safety. The position allows her to apply forestry expertise while also gaining insight into entirely different fields.