diff --git a/hoot-core/src/main/cpp/hoot/core/io/OsmXmlWriter.cpp b/hoot-core/src/main/cpp/hoot/core/io/OsmXmlWriter.cpp
index 2941a17..401c70e 100644
--- a/hoot-core/src/main/cpp/hoot/core/io/OsmXmlWriter.cpp
+++ b/hoot-core/src/main/cpp/hoot/core/io/OsmXmlWriter.cpp
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ void OsmXmlWriter::close()
QString OsmXmlWriter::toString(const ConstOsmMapPtr& map, const bool formatXml)
{
+ LOG_DEBUG("Writing map to xml string...");
+
OsmXmlWriter writer;
writer.setFormatXml(formatXml);
// this will be deleted by the _fp std::shared_ptr