Fusch residents fund reforestation to reduce landslide risk

Residents of a settlement in Fusch an der Großglocknerstraße have helped fund reforestation on a hillside above their homes, reducing the threat of landslides and debris flows, ORF reported. The settlement had been evacuated several times during heavy rain, most recently in 2019.

After severe windthrow in 2002 left gaps in the forest, the danger to the Schwimmbadsiedlung residential area grew. A protective fence built soon afterwards was not enough, and streams began cutting channels through the exposed hillside.

Because the steep ground is difficult to manage for timber production, the residents finance reforestation through the Fusch-Ost Protective Water Cooperative. Its chairman, Stefan Zehentner, said the arrangement gives landowners an incentive to manage their forest for the safety of cooperative members. Eleven landowners have holdings on the slope.

Since the reforestation, the settlement has not had to be evacuated, according to the report. Gebhard Neumayr, a local head of the Torrent and Avalanche Control Service, said the forest provides protection that a rockfall net alone could not. Without the forest, many rows of protective fencing would have been needed, he said.

Forest protection takes time to develop, while rockfall and avalanche nets work immediately, officials said, so both measures are needed. Salzburg, the federal government and landowners invest about three million euros a year in protective forests across the state. The report said achieving the same level of protection with nets would have cost 396 million euros.

About half of Salzburg is forested. More than half of its 357,000 hectares of forest now serves primarily to protect settlements.