Once again the Black Forest is in the headlines. But this time there is no whining and complaining. Foresters say that the Black Forest is growing as never before. But is it thriving? Fears of forest death have died down, so long live restoration forestry? The reality is, unfortunately, more complicated. The trees are growing, but the soil is depleted. For some time initial signs of climate change have become more than obvious. The spruce and fir monocultures are shrinking, but the officially announced restructuring of our forests into mixed stands is a thorn in the side of the saw mill owners. The Black Forest has long been influenced by the tourist industry and the world market, by the quick buck and international standards. We often forget that our forest lives in time dimensions wholly different from our own, and that its existence relies on the generations preceeding it – what grandfathers plant, grandchildren might perhaps harvest. An essay on the Black Forest and how we treat it.