Is spruce part of the natural forest in southern and eastern Westphalia?

The spruce grows in North Rhine-Westphalia on approximately 252,000 hectares of forest area and dominates especially in the montane areas. Hurricane-related forest damage, especially the montane spruce populations, led to a rethinking of the forest use plans. The main focus is on more stable mixed forests, almost without the involvement of spruce, because this is no longer considered suitable for location. But is this assumption correct? The present work examines the question whether the spruce has been a natural component of the North Rhine-Westphalian forests since the end of the last cold season — the Vistula cold season ended about 12,000 years ago today. The answer to this question can only be historically proven. Pollen analyses describe the forest composition of the past. Other parts of trees are rarely preserved in moorlands or sediments and their findings are hardly statistically evaluable.