Forsthaus Falkenau

- Season 22

(2011)

The mayor of Störzing am Ammersee makes unemployed forester Stefan an offer he can't resist: run their fine forest and a nature reserve he'll be in charge of setting up. The mayor bluffs about 'other candidates who already accepted' to get Stefan's yes the same day. Still, he dreads telling the home front, especially his wife Marie, who can take over a retiring GP's practice in their old village.

Now Stefan has accepted his new forester job, he must urgently move to his official residence in Störzing. The male relatives help, son Daniel even drops by from college, while his sister just wines and her cat seems to hide near the old home. Worst is Stefan's wife Marie, who still plans to take over a medical practice there, but her sister makes her see sense.

Now Stefan is moving, the home front prepares grudgingly to put his house on the market to be rented the next 10 years, but clumsy dad and his mate cause a barn fire hazard. The victim's fatherless daughter bullies and robs his yellow daughter. Stefan discovers a wood trade irregularity involving his forestry assistant. Marie finally decides to leave Küblach but drags out moving.

Stefan has to take in his dad, Wolfgang's buddy Josef and their former host Marianne after her homestead B&B is consumed in a fire started in the barn. Amid all the wining and practical arrangements, Stefan can hardly concentrate on an urgent quarterly report. Still he reacts instantly to a report that a corps, probably some 200 years old, is found in the moor by the traditionalist turf-harvester and his warning it's being wrecked by drying, so Stefan urges the mayor the municipality must stop the milk cattle ranchers' neighboring contracts and include the bog in the ...

Stefan is delighted to discover an eagle's nest, but must risk intervening because plastic used to build it ruins the drainage. A failure would also compromise his plans for the nature reserve, which are opposed in the municipal council by the milkery owner who secretly builds a regional monopoly. She conspires with disgruntled forestry assistant Ronny' Badstuber, promising bribery. The insurance is only prepared to pay out 80,000 Euros, claiming the fire was the result of carelessness bordering on arson. Wolfgang, Josef and Marianne now consider a smaller home, but ...

Stefan discovers that foxes are dying without exterior lesions, has it checked out scientifically and thus learns he must search for a poison-monger. Meanwhile his touchy foreman practically chucks in his job, but Stefan finds it's on account of his daughter, who is dying from a mystery virus he assumes to stem from foxes. Wolfgang, Joseph and Marianne decide to settle in Störzing so they can remain with Stefan. Marie keeps whinging about her veterinary career slump.

Stefan examines the case of shot foxes, but the mayor makes his only evidence, a bullet, disappear. The wicked milker plant owner's plan to make the last farmer in the way sign over the Gebauer land works, but her heir Konstantin refuses to cooperate because he doesn't want the family firm. Stefan is far from pleased about Marie's secretive, selfish attitude when her ex Michael offers her a job as his veterinary practice partner.

To Stefan's delight, forestry student-son Daniel is back home, to do his practicum, but expects to fail his theoretical exams and considers dropping out, only he can't bring himself to burst peacock-pride dad's bubble. Stefan hesitates whether to promote Roland on account of seniority or Eva for her forestry diploma, but ultimately gives the foreman job to his experienced Kublau man Franz Breitkreuz. Stefan promised to deliver a huge quantity of wood, but the only road is blocked because of a careless cross-country motor-biker, whose identity is as shocking as ...

Stefan and Gammerdinger worry about roadkill, such as another wild boar on the nature reserve access road, where Konstantin Grandl injures his arm racing in his sports-car. The mayor is reluctant to propose road obstacles which MrS. Grandl is likely to oppose in council. The elderly trio must instruct the architect how to renovate the youth hostel, but the the couple's growing frustration Joseph seems to pull out, as turns out needlessly delicately. Marie's frustration over professional inactivity starts sorting out itself.

A storm causes major damage in Stefan's nature reserve, and the major doubts if the municipality can put up the necessary funds timely. Bullying by spiteful, jealous Badstuber, whose side Stefan seems to take, makes Daniel's cup flow over, so he decides to run away after Stefan found out he bailed out of college. The Hamburg-based Petersen couple and their daughter, who can't handle their impending divorce, get lost shortly, but end up inspiring Stefan with a great idea: A forest appreciation center. Joseph and Wolfgang each have another purpose in mind for the youth ...

Stefan objects to the mayor's deal to build a road cheaply, using his staff and materials paid for by Grandl, which he proves to be of inferior quality. Stefan and Gammerdinger also deal with four nandus (South American ostriches) that escaped from local Leo's farm just after Marie became his veterinarian, causing havoc all over town. Joseph panics about his hearing after a mishap with furniture delivery for the youth hostel.

Stefan and Xaver find an abandoned farm on the natural reserve. It may prove crucial in fighting back when Grandl tries to make the financially overstretched municipal board scrap the project indefinitely. Meanwhile the mayor pursues his affair with Marie's sister.

Stefan's trusted canine companion and year-long family pet Sina's off behavior forces Marie to confirm with conclusive tests the dog has terminal cancer, but the Leitners need time to accept the inevitable. The youth hostel's new neighbor uses a legal loophole to circumvent the ban on fences around his forest plot, where he practices "reiki", a Japanese medication and healing technique, which Wolfgang tries out. Mayor Kögl's next courting move leads to an equestrian misunderstanding.

Justice assigns some adolescents to the forestry station for community service. They are lodged in the youth hostel and Stefan assigns Daniel to supervise them. However the cocky lads won't accept a good boy's authority just because superiors say so.

Grandl dairy sponsors the town's annual dog sled race, starring former national champion Thomas Anger. Heir Konstatin however, who has an eye on Lisa, entered into a bet leading to sabotage him. Stefan, who proves himself a born dog handler, is persuaded to take over. Local champion Toni Ramsauer is crucial to the next bet phase. Stefan finds a positive pregnancy kit and worries why Marie didn't tell him, but his daughter Jenny is the expectant one.