Federal Forest Research Institute

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The Federal Forest Research Institute (FBVA) was Austria's state test and research facility for forestry and forest soil science from 1874 to 2005, based in Vienna .

background

Until 2005 it was assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture . In 2005 it was integrated into the newly founded Federal Research and Training Center for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW), of whose research departments it makes up the largest part.

While the BFW is an institution under public law , the FBVA had the function of a Federal Forest Office . His tasks were most recently divided between nine specialist departments and regulated in the Austrian Forest Act of 1975. These are now integrated into four larger specialist institutes based in Vienna as part of the BFW.

The headquarters of the FBVA and the BFW is a large building in the research forest near Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna XIII ( Hietzing ). There are also four other locations: the Mariabrunn Forest Academy on the western outskirts and the one in Innsbruck , an experimental garden near Tulln, and a teaching and experimental forest in Carinthia . The Mariabrunn Academy is affiliated with a museum for forestry experiments.

history

The Federal Forest Research Institute was founded in June 1874. It was created by an imperial decree under the name KK Forstliche Versuchsleitung , from 1891 it was called KK Forstliche Versuchsanstalt Mariabrunn .

Work areas around the turn of the century

In the first 70 years after its founding, the focus of activity was on wood measurement and yield science, wood biology and forest meteorology; later increasingly in torrent and avalanche control . Species and seed history were also researched and methods of forest regeneration were tested on test areas with foreign wood species.

In terms of the possible uses of the forest, the focus was initially on the extraction of resin from black pine as well as charring and saccharification . Shortly afterwards , topics related to work simplification and forest protection were added (forest pests, tree diseases and their control), and later the damage caused by industrial smoke gases .

Structure and tasks from 1962

A major turning point occurred around 1960, when the great decline in forests caused by sulfur oxides in the eastern German and Czech Ore Mountains became apparent. In Austria, a new forest law (Forstrechtsbereinigungsgesetz) was passed in 1962 and the organization of the FBVA was expanded to include agendas for increased environmental protection . A few years after the start of numerous monitoring and observation programs such as the forest condition inventory , the necessary measures in the 1975 Forest Act were adapted to the new experiences.

The FBVA now had the following organization in nine departments (which essentially existed until 2005) and a branch office:

  • Institute for Silviculture
  • Institute for Forest Plant Breeding and Genetics
  • Institute for location (from 1993 forest ecology)
  • Institute for Forest Protection (from 1985 immission research and forest chemistry)
  • Institute for Earnings and Business Administration
  • Institute for Forest Technology
  • Institute for Forest Inventory
  • Institute for Scientific Services (1993 with GIS as director)
  • Institute for Torrent and Avalanche Control (split 1985, 1993 to Innsbruck)
  • Branch office for subalpine forest research in Innsbruck.

The work of the FBVA can be divided into regular observation programs , temporary research projects and other activities. The former include u. a. the Austrian Forest Inventory from 1961 (adapted in 1981), the Bioindicator Network and the Forest Condition Inventory (WZI, from 1984) and the Forest Damage Monitoring System (WBS) from 1989. The almost 200 research projects of the individual institutes and their results were regularly presented at scientific conferences and in Briefly published every year in a 300-page annual report published by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW, "Ministry of Life" for short).

Known employees

See also

Web links

literature

  • W. Kilian: Data material and data systems of the Federal Forest Research Institute . In G. Gerstbach (ed.): Geoscientific data in land information systems ( GeoLIS I ), pp. 119–127, Geowiss. Communication from TU Wien, Volume 27, Vienna 1986
  • Annual report of the FBVA 2002, BMLFUW (Ministry of Life), Vienna

Individual evidence