Qualification of a forest area as coppice forest

Facts

Werner Maag is the owner of a parcel in Flims Waldhaus, on which an area of 751 m2 has been designated as coppice forest. Maag filed a complaint against this forest determination, as he wanted to classify the area as high forest. The Federal Court had to assess whether the qualification as coppice forest was correct.

Considerations

The Federal Court held that the distinction between coppice and high forest is made by cantonal law, not federal law. The classification as coppice forest is therefore essentially only subject to review for arbitrariness. The Federal Court considered it to be objectively justifiable to treat the approximately 750 m2 of vegetation as a unit and to assume the alder as the dominant tree species. Since alders are predisposed to be regularly coppiced for the production of timber, the qualification as coppice forest…