2023-07-28 03:12:21
Climate change not only brings stress to the native forests with extreme weather conditions such as windthrow, but also better conditions for the bark beetle. “Heat and prolonged drought during the vegetation period affect the forest and weaken the trees’ ability to defend themselves against attacks by forest pests such as the bark beetle,” said Andreas Gruber, Federal Forestry Board Member for Forestry and Nature Conservation, to the APA. The situation in the southwest is particularly tense.
Around half of the entire ÖBf wood harvest – around 940,000 harvest solid cubic meters – was damaged wood in 2022. Around 50,000 solid cubic meters of wood fell victim to snowfall. About 150,000 solid cubic meters of damaged wood were added due to wind throwing. 670,000 solid cubic meters were so-called beetle wood. Around 40 percent of this was accounted for by only around ten percent of the total ÖBf forest area.
This concerns the regions of Upper Carinthia (districts of Spittal and Hermagor) and East Tyrol (district of Lienz). But forests in southern Lower Austria and Upper Styria are also increasingly affected by bark beetle infestation, according to the Federal Forestry Agency (ÖBf). In some regions, the bark beetle has already spread to the tree line at around 2,000 meters above sea level and the trees, which are stressed due to the drought, can hardly offer any resistance. In addition, the warmer temperatures favor the reproduction and development of new beetle populations.
The climate crisis and its effects are not giving forests and forests a break. 2022 was one of the warmest years both in the lowlands and in the mountains, and some weather stations of GeoSphere Austria (formerly: ZAMG) had the hottest year in the 256-year history of measurements. The number of days with more than 30 degrees per year has doubled or tripled in Austria in recent decades. “Heat and persistent drought during the vegetation period affect the forest and weaken the trees’ ability to defend themselves against attacks by forest pests such as the bark beetle,” says Andreas Gruber, ÖBf board member for forestry and nature conservation. Extreme weather and the bark beetle shaped the past forest year.
In 2022, federal forests spent a good 12 million euros on measures related to climate change. Almost 5 million euros went to fighting bark beetles. For example, in 2022 around 9,600 so-called trapping trees were laid out on federal forest areas and around 1,000 traps equipped with attractants were set up. Drones are also used to explore the forests from the air. In addition, the capacities in the affected regions were increased in order to bring the trees out of the forest in good time or to debark them on site in good time in steeper locations.
The Federal Forests draw up reforestation concepts for damaged forest areas. Here, priority is given to natural regeneration with the addition of alternative tree species. At the same time, forest conversion must be pushed forward. For this reason, in the Mölltal, for example, tree species that are better able to cope with future climatic conditions are planted. These are, for example, the larch, which can withstand storms particularly well thanks to its deeply anchored roots, but also stone pine, spruce, fir, sycamore maple or rowan berries – more on this, see here:
The most effective means of fighting the bark beetle is early detection and the immediate removal of infested trees from the forest. Due to the topography, this is often difficult – and expensive – especially in the Upper Carinthian Mölltal with its steep slopes. “The climate crisis costs us a lot of money every year and it cannot be assumed that this will change in the foreseeable future,” says ÖBf board spokesman Georg Schöppl. “All the more we need the good proceeds in the wood sector and in the other business areas in order to further advance the conversion to climate-friendly forests, to contain the bark beetle plague and to preserve the protective forests, which are particularly important for Austria,” says ÖBf board spokesman Georg Schöppl.
Overall, however, the bark beetle situation in Austria remains challenging. At present, however, no detailed statement can be made for areas of the federal forests for this year. At the moment the level is similar to last year. Hotspots remain the Mölltal and Upper Styria. The control costs will be higher than last year. “In the 2023 budget, we had planned to invest almost 14 million euros in the care of the forests,” says Schöppl. “As it looks, the need will be a little higher. For bark beetle prevention and control alone, we are investing more than six million euros this year.”
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