As part of the survey on forest harvesting technology 2020, in addition to forest enterprises > 200 ha, all forest service companies that were registered with the Chamber of Commerce in 2019 as commercial service providers for timber harvest were recorded. From 1430 forest enterprises and 3873 forest service companies, what have been contacted, 825 (58%) forest enterprices and 2680 (69%) forest service companies either filled out the questionnaire online or sent it back by post and e‑mail.
A first question was whether all of the companies registered as commercial forest service providers are actually active in wood harvesting and forest maintenance. The evaluation of the feedback has shown that only 54% of the companies recorded are actually active in wood harvesting and forest maintenance. 31% of the companies gave no feedback.
In total, almost 7000 people involved in wood harvesting and forest maintenance were recorded. Three out of five people work full-time, 40% work part-time or on a seasonal basis. Broken down to full-time equivalents, these are around 5100 full-value jobs, of which almost 2000 can be found in forestry companies and 3100 in forestry companies.
The main purpose of the survey, besides the people, was the machine equipment for estimating the timber harvesting capacity.
Around 9000 chainsaws and 1900 brushcutters were recorded on hand-carried power tools. On logging machines 1957 tractors, 1452 3‑point-mounted winches and 769 crane trailers, some chipping machines, 56 mulchers and 529 firewood splitters were counted.
A total of 531 yarders were recorded, of which almost 500 are tower yarders and 160 of them are directly combined with a crane processor. 305 excavators with processors and 200 heavy special skidders are available for harvesting wood using the tree method.
Around 350 harvesters and 360 forwarders are used in Austria for fully mechanized timber harvesting.
It is nevertheless noteworthy that some companies regularly use around 40 horses for logging.
BFW is currently developing a search engine under the working title “Forest Service Marketplace” for quick search for timber harvesting providers who are ready to accept orders in a certain area at short notice. More than 500 interested forest entrepreneurs are already registered and will be able to be found online when the platform is launched in early 2022. |