In research and teaching the department deals with silviculture and forest ecology of the temperate zones. The central objective of silviculture is to shape and manage forest ecosystems in view of the aims of private forest landowners and the legislator, so that one or several forest functions can be maintained in a sustainable way. A controlled forest development and thus all silvicultural operations, require a fundamental understanding of basic processes driving forest ecosystems. This knowledge allows deriving silvicultural measures which are close to the natural processes occurring in forests. In order to accomplish a close to nature management results from all branches of ecology, and also practical experience gathered in forestry so far, are taken into account. Teaching is focused on the scientific fundamentals of forest ecology. Furthermore concepts and methods of stand establishment, tending, thinning and final harvest measures are taught and their effects on resource availability, biodiversity, and forest dynamic are evaluated.

With its research and teaching the department sees itself in the tradition of Alfred Dengler who has defined the central target of silviculture eighty years ago in the foreword of his textbook „Waldbau auf ökologischer Grundlage“(1930, 7th edition, 2006) as: “But only the full comprehension of ecological fundamentals allows a real understanding of the complex connections in the life of a forest and hence can give a scientific justification of all silvicultural measures. Without this background silviculture would be more or less stuck on the level of a handicraft!”