Modelle? Brauche ich nicht. modellieren? tue ich nicht – Oder vielleicht doch?

Very few people would spontaneously describe themselves as modelers. Often, models are seen as extremely compli-cated, not very useful and not practical. We put these (pre-) judgments to the test and show that models are indispensable in our everyday life and enable us to make decisions promptly without pondering over them for too long. Based on a simple decision, we explain the typical process of model building. If models are already indispensable in everyday life, this is even more the case in the forest management and in forest research. Forest models such as the normal forest or the yield tables have always formed the backbone of sustain-able interventions. Global trends and climatic changes of the last 50 to 70 years require dynamic, climate-sensitive forest models to answer questions about the future development of forests, tree species, carbon sinks, wood use potentials, damages and dangers and to analyze options for action. How-ever, each of these questions requires a specific model or model group. Based on six specific questions, we present forest models available in Switzerland that are suitable for an-swering these questions.