The Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf) are struggling with expensive helicopter operations. Due to the high volume of damaged wood caused by storms in hard-to-reach places, “we will have historically high wood harvesting costs this year,” said the board duo Georg Schöppl and Andreas Gruber in an APA interview. Normally, the removal costs per cubic meter of wood are an average of 35 euros, while helicopter operations cost 120 to 140 euros.
“The wind throw is largely in the rope area and partly in the helicopter area,” reported Gruber. In normal years, 2,000 to 3,000 cubic meters of wood are flown, “this year it will certainly be 17,000 to 20,000.” The Federal Forests pay extra: “The delivery costs more than we get for the tree,” said Schöppl.
Die Federal Forests remove the damaged wood from the forest if possible in order to give the bark beetle as little surface area as possible to attack. The many helicopter operations increase the average wood harvesting costs this year by one to two euros per cubic meter. Overall, the Federal Forests Around 1.5 to 1.6 million cubic metres of wood are harvested from the forest each year.
But there is also good news: “The wet weather has helped us and the vitality of the forests is certainly better this year,” said Schöppl. “As of today, and knock on wood, we are cautiously optimistic,” said Schöppl about the current financial year. But: “One or two thunderstorms in the summer could ruin everything again, in the truest sense of the word.”
Die Federal Forests are subordinate to the ÖVP-led Ministry of Agriculture and contributed 27 million euros to the budget last year. This record amount will be Federal Forests “We won’t quite manage it this year, but from today’s perspective it will be one of the best three results in history,” said Schöppl.
In order to be able to afford the rising costs of forest management in the future, the Federal Forests has been focusing on the real estate and energy business areas for some time. Another wind turbine project in Styria is in the pipeline. Federal Forests have already built several wind farms with partners, for example on the Pretulalpe in Styria and in the Kobernaußerwald in Upper Austria.
