Within the past twenty years, the phenomenon of the global climate change has become object to numerous research activities, which are mainly dealing with a global view of the problem. Many answers have yet to be found on a regional level though. This also applies to forestry which strongly depends on climatic conditions. In regions such as the continental East of Austria, which represent a climatically border region for silviculture, this becomes even more urgent. The book on hand was supposed to give additional help to forest owners, forest wardens and other persons working in forestry in Eastern Austria to take suitable silvicultural measures in view of the prognosticated climate change. First result of a series of planned research projects to the topic "Ecological silvicultural management in climatic border regions" are represented in this book. It was financed by the Fund for Conservation of the Natural Ressources of Austria and the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. The Fund for Conservation of the Natural Ressources of Austria is constituted by the Association of Private Farm- and Forest-Owners of Austria and the WWF Austria. The book deals with the zone of subcontinental mixed oak forests, oak-hornbeam-forests as well as beech forests of the submontante zone in the continental east of Austria. So far, the climatic changes in this zone do not have any statistic significance, but the time series of climatic data of the past as well as actual climate models do indicate a trend to increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation in the continental east. Thus future forest management in Eastern Austria, representing a climatic border zone for silviculture anyway, will become a difficult challenge.
