When the bark beetle population exploded in the Bavarian Forest National Park in the 1980’s and the National Parks Administration refrained deliberately from practicing pest control, this decision had far-reaching effects. Within a few short years, several thousand acres of old, formerly commercially useful European spruce trees died off in the upper reaches of the forest. But then a miracle occurred. From the bark beetles’ path of destruction grew a new forest, more diverse and colorful than the former commercial forest had ever been before. Barely 30 years after the beetle-infestation, the idea of “Let Nature take its course”, propagated by the National Park Administration, can now at last prove its success. The film illustrates the path from former commercial forest to the “catastrophe" of the 1980’s, and how, from that legacy has managed to emerge a “primeval forest of tomorrow".
