Management of bark beetle calamities with focus on salvaged wood regions in Carinthia and East Tyrol
The management of increasingly frequent amounts of damaged wood in Austria due to climate change (2018: 50%, 2019: 62%, 2020: 54% of total felling) requires efficient, resilient and sustainable management for the rapid processing and removal of damaged wood from the forest. This can avoid critical damage due to bark beetle spread or wood quality losses and the associated price reductions, revenue slumps and additional costs. In the case of damaged wood management, there is a lack of mature management concepts for large-scale calamities, such as those currently occurring acutely in East Tyrol and Carinthia, which are coordinated between the various actors. Therefore, in the project Käfer-KO an analysis of the status quo of the management of damaged wood in the priority damaged areas of East Tyrol and Carinthia is carried out based on a process analysis of the logistics chain of damaged wood and a roadmap of damaged wood is developed. This includes the evaluation of the logistics potential and the derivation of coping strategies in the case of damaged wood for the longer-term improvement of the resilience of the damaged wood supply chain as well as a bundle of measures for the medium-term improvement of the logistics processes in the main damaged areas. The individual work packages are being processed with the intensive involvement of forestry practice as well as timber harvesting and freight companies (lorries and railways) and administrative bodies. Furthermore, developments and experience in wet and dry storage (ManTra forest fund project) are also incorporated into the development of innovative damage wood management. This makes it possible, among other things, to carry out benchmark analyses on the basis of corresponding comparative key figures and thus to determine further development potentials. The regional focus of the surveys and analyses is on the provinces of Tyrol (focus: East Tyrol) and Carinthia, which have been affected by persistent bark beetle damage in recent years. With the development of practical wood damage management strategies as well as a bundle of measures, the project Beetle-KO contributes decisively to an improvement of knowledge management along the entire wood damage logistics chain. Evidence-based study results are processed for the management of large-scale damage events in the forest in order to provide stakeholders such as authorities and forest owners with sound strategies and concrete measures for future emergency preparation as well as acute emergency planning. This leads to improved preservation of wood quality, increased efficiency and the initiation of innovative developments along the damaged wood logistics chain, which offers considerable added value especially
Duration
01.03.2023-31.08.2026
Funded by
Project partners:
DI Dr. Herbert Kohlross Unternehmensberatung Forstwirtschaft, Dipl.-Ing. Ernst HERZOG Ingenieurbüro für Forstwirtschaft
Ing. Thomas Strieder, Waldaufseher in der Gemeinde Ainet, DI(FH) Mario Sinn, Geschäftsführer Waldgenossenschaft Iseltal
Contact
Priv.-Doz. Dipl.-Ing. Honorarprofessor Dr.nat.techn. Peter Rauch
Dr. Ing. Christoph Kogler B.Sc. MSc.
BOKU organizational units involved