Despite negative environmental influences such as bark beetles and storm damage, Austria’s forests grow faster than they are felled for timber. This positive balance emerges from the forest inventory for the period 2016 to 2021, which the Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Research Center for Forests (BFW) jointly presented yesterday. Overall, forests currently make up 47.9 percent of Austria’s territory.
“In the past ten years, the forest area has increased by six hectares every day,” said Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP). There are four million hectares of forest in total, with most of the growth coming from the mountainous regions in western Austria. The reason for this was reforestation, but also natural spread. “Climate change is leading to an increase in the tree line, but this is happening very slowly,” explained Peter Mayer, head of the BFW. In the past, around two thirds of the growth was harvested, today it is 89 percent. However, environmental influences also play a role here. Many trees have to be felled due to beetle infestation.
At around 46 percent, the spruce is still the most common tree in Austria, but in general the trend is towards mixed forest – important for biodiversity, according to Mayer. This also benefits from a higher proportion of deadwood, which provides habitat for numerous animal species. The problem, however, is that larger wild animal populations also cause more damage to the trees. 420 hectares have been damaged by browsing, and a trend reversal is needed here. The construction of protective forests is particularly difficult, and “peel damage” also occurs here.
Regarding the EU forest strategy, Totschnig announced that he would advocate active protection and not a disuse.
Source: Nachrichten
