Natural beech wood

Example of a natural beech wood. The forest floor allows beech-seeds (mast) to take root and replenish the beech wood naturally.

Natural forests has trees from all stages of the life cycle, including dead and decaying trees.

Natural beech wood is a beech wood, that is able to replenish and sustain itself on its own.

Beech is a valued timber, but most beech woods require human intervention to replace old trees, since the young trees are not able to survive at all, or at a rate that sustains the beech population over time. There can be various reasons for this condition. Heavy forest floor coverage of other plants in the spring, shadowing the young beech-shoots, is a common cause. Abundance of nutrient-rich soils will also be difficult to handle for beech woods in the long run.

A natural beech wood has beech trees of all ages, including fallen and dead trees. Other tree species might be mixed in, but not to a degree that threatens the dominant beech.

The term is also used for other tree species, such as 'natural oak wood', 'natural birch wood', etc..