Integrated forest and wildlife management – a prerequisite for climate-smart tree species mixtures in natural regeneration

Stockholm

2024

516

Bandaufführung

40005294

Sustainable forest management includes not only the preservation and management of tree populations, but also the management of the various game species belonging to the forest habitat. This dual management regularly leads to conflicts of objectives between hunters and foresters, as the type and intensity of hunting has significant effects on natural regeneration, tree species composition and biodiversity in the forest. Moreover, the selective browsing of specific tree species might affect the suitability of the next tree generation and thus the vulnerability of the regenerated forest. Austrian harbours a broad range of forests types ranging from low elevation mixed hardwood forests up to high elevation Alpine forests. Several forests types already face signs of climate change induced disturbances and forest pest. Natural regeneration is therefore seen as an efficient naturebased solution to support mixed species forests and to reduce the vulnerability of forest to climate change based forest hazards. The objective of the present study is to disentangle the role of prerequisites for climate-smart natural regeneration in terms of adult species compositions, forest management and structure, wildlife habitat and game management. Across 21 pilot forest areas, detailed assessments of forest structure, regeneration ecology and wildlife ecology were undertaken using grid-based inventories. The recorded composition of natural regeneration was tested for its vulnerability to future climate using tree species distribution models. Moreover, hunters and forest owners were interviewed for their management behaviour, management objectives and cooperation as integrated forest and wildlife management. Our results demonstrate that on average, tree species diversity decreased from the adult stage to the natural regeneration. Moreover, intensive browsing on species which are less vulnerable to climate change further reduced the diversity of the future forest, despite common interests and significant efforts of both forest managers and hunters. The most successful pilot areas showed a long-term commitment to active forest management and hunting as supporting service. Such cooperations not only reached high tree species diversity but also higher wildlife habitat quality. We conclude that climate-smart tree species mixtures from natural regeneration are not likely to be reached without strong cooperations among forest managers and hunters.