Fire-damaged trees recycled as material to restore forests

The Korea Forest Service announced Tuesday that it has selected "forest ecological restoration using fire-damaged timber" as the grand prize winner at the 21st National Forest Ecological Restoration Technology Competition.

This year's competition evaluated entries through two rounds of judging by a panel of academic, public and private sector experts — a first-round written review and a second-round presentation and on-site assessment — ultimately selecting seven projects in total: four construction case sites and three restoration model proposals.

In the construction case site category, the grand prize — the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Award — went to the Uljin National Forest Management Office for its model of forest ecological restoration using fire-damaged timber. The project was recognized for achieving a resource-circulation approach to restoration by recycling fire-damaged trees on site as materials for brush fencing and wood-chip mulching, preventing topsoil erosion and promoting organic matter supply. Judges particularly praised the model's flexible application of zone-specific techniques tailored to each area's natural recovery capacity and disaster risk level, calling it a leading standard for wildfire site restoration.

In the restoration model proposal category, the excellence award — the Korea Forest Service Commissioner Award — went to Green With Co. for its "forest ecological restoration model combining terrain and vegetation recovery at an abandoned quarry." The project earned high marks for systematically presenting a disaster-prevention ecological restoration model that divides the abandoned quarry into upper, middle and lower sections: the upper section proactively blocks secondary hazards such as rockfalls and collapses, while the middle and lower sections link slope stabilization with the recovery of native vegetation.

Other honors included an excellence award in the construction case site category for the National Institute of Forest Science (restoration based on genetic diversity of Korean fir), merit awards in the same category for the Korea National Park Service's Western Regional Headquarters (restoration of a degraded site at Mudeungsan's Neowananok Ranch) and Yeonggwang-gun Office (Daesin-ri, Baeksu-eup, Yeonggwang-gun), and merit awards in the restoration model proposal category for Choe Jong-o (a soil and planting restoration model for artillery range-damaged sites) and Invelab Co. (drone- and AI-based precision diagnosis combined with seed ball application for wildfire site ecological restoration).

Korea Forest Service Commissioner Park Eun-sik said the agency plans to continue sharing technologies and providing institutional support so that the field-centered construction techniques and innovative model proposals identified through the competition can be actively reflected and disseminated in forest ecological restoration policy and on-site practice.