The stems are good quality due to size, geometry, and wood quality, usually from the lower part of the standing tree. The beech tree belongs to tree species that can develop a facultative core or red core because of external factors. The size, color and structure of this red core can vary. It is mostly caused by injuries of the stem or via dry branches so that oxygen can get into it. Then phenol contents can be built. These cannot get into the cell wall structures of the tree. This happens mostly in older trees when the humidity of the wood is less than 60 percent. It can begin at a tree age of 80 years, mostly at the age of 100 to 130 years. In the sustainable economic used forests in Germany, beech trees are harvested mainly up to the tree age of 150 years, at the latest. Normally the technological characteristics of the wood are not affected by the facultative core. The respective wood has special color variations and can be used for different purposes - maybe via special treatment -, e.g. for furniture. Some people like the red core color others not.

The long-life use of wood-products is helpful for carbon sequestration because trees mostly contain around 50 % carbon in their wood. This makes sense if the wood is from consequent sustainable forestry, that also respects ecological and social dimensions. If the wood after the use is burnt or rotten, the carbon cycle - from cradle to cradle - is closed. The more sustainably used forests there are, the better this would be for the future. But there should also exist enough natural forests that are not economically used - in the best-case prime forests – from now on into the future.