1.7 million solid cubic meters were harvested in Tyrol. Increase due to enormous amount of damaged wood and high price level.

Logging in the Tyrolean private forest (excluding federal forests) increased significantly in 2022. While almost 1.3 million cubic meters of wood were harvested in the Tyrolean forest in 2021, it was around 1.7 million cubic meters last year. "The increase in logging is mainly due to two factors - on the one hand the high amount of damaged wood and on the other hand the relatively good wood price," explains the responsible provincial councilor, Josef Geisler.

In East Tyrol, however, the proportion of damaged wood was 98 percent due to the weather events of recent years and the bark beetle infestation, while in North Tyrol it was less than 30 percent. In a five-year comparison, felling in the Tyrolean forest has almost doubled, but is still well below the amount of wood that can be used sustainably. "That means: More wood grows every year than is used," says Geisler.

The Tyrolean forest officer rejects the EU's plans to put large parts of the forest out of use and leave it to its own devices: "Our mountain forests cannot be compared to the rainforest in the Amazon. The damaging events of recent years in particular show that we must do everything we can to make our forests climate-friendly.” Sustainable management is essential “to ensure the protective function of our forests and to become independent of fossil fuels.”

Source: dolomitenstadt.at